TRUCKEE, Calif. - Tahoe Forest Hospital is proud to announce that it has received the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Rural Recognition Silver Award for its efforts to optimize stroke care and eliminate rural health care outcome disparities.

Because speed in receiving care is critical to preventing stroke mortality and minimizing long-term disability, people who live in rural communities face a 30% increased risk for stroke mortality -- a gap that has grown over the past two decades. Tahoe Forest is committed to changing that.

The American Heart Association, the world's leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health, recognizes the important role rural hospitals play in initiating timely stroke care. The award recognizes hospitals for demonstrating acute stroke care excellence as measured by composite scores for intravenous thrombolytic therapy, timely hospital inter-facility transfer, dysphagia screening, symptom timeline and deficit assessment documentation, emergency medical services communication, brain imaging, and stroke expert consultation.

"We're honored to be recognized for the vital work we do every day to give patients affected by stroke the best opportunity for recovery and survival," said Tahoe Forest Health System Interim CEO, Louis Ward. "At Tahoe Forest, we're dedicated to minimizing the obstacles that compromise the level of care often faced by rural stroke patients. I'm incredibly proud of our team for their dedication to excellence in this field and for this well-deserved achievement."