For 12th Year, UAMS Nationally Recognized for Providing High-Quality Stroke Care
| LITTLE ROCK — The American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Stroke Association have recognized the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) for the 12th consecutive year for its commitment to excellence in stroke care.
The Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus quality achievement award signifies that UAMS remains committed to ensuring that people experiencing a stroke receive timely, appropriate treatment, ultimately helping to save lives and reduce disability. The award is based on nationally recognized, research-based guidelines.
Stroke is the No. 4 cause of death and a leading cause of disability in the United States, according to the AHA’s 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Report. A stroke occurs when a blood vessel supplying the brain is blocked by a clot or ruptures, preventing blood and oxygen from reaching brain tissue. When this happens, brain cells begin to die. Early detection and rapid treatment are critical to improving survival, minimizing disability and supporting faster recovery.
The Get With The Guidelines program is designed to improve stroke care through consistent adherence to AHA guidelines. Each year, hospitals participating in the program qualify for the award by demonstrating how their organization has followed clinical treatment guidelines and helped people manage their recovery and ongoing health at home.
Adherence to the guidelines can minimize long-term effects of stroke and help prevent death.
UAMS also received the AHA’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus, Advanced Therapy award, as well as the Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award.
Those awards, respectively, are for meeting specific criteria that reduce the time between a patient’s arrival at the hospital and clot-busting treatment, and for ensuring that patients with Type 2 diabetes, who might be at a higher risk for complications, receive the most up-to-date, evidence-based care when hospitalized due to stroke.
“We are proud to recognize UAMS for its commitment to caring for people experiencing stroke,” said Steven Messe, M.D., volunteer chair for the AHA Stroke System of Care Advisory Group. “Participation in Get With The Guidelines is associated with improved patient outcomes, including greater likelihood of being discharged home, fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates — a meaningful benefit for healthcare systems, families and communities.”
The awards cover program data from 2024 and 2025.
Paige Womack, BSN, RN, director of the UAMS Comprehensive Stroke Center program, said she is proud that UAMS is part of a program that helps save lives and stroke-caused disabilities.
“This repeated recognition over the last 12 years shows that we are committed to best practices and life-saving stroke care,” she said.
In 2025, UAMS was recertified as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by DNV Healthcare USA Inc. In 2018, UAMS became the first hospital in Arkansas to earn Comprehensive Stroke Center designation, highlighting its commitment to offering Arkansans the best in stroke care.
UAMS provides 24/7 access to stroke experts, ensuring rapid treatment with clot-busting medication. UAMS also offers interventional neuroradiology and advanced neurosurgical procedures and delivers post-procedure care guided by best practices to enhance patient outcomes.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,553 students and 1,030 medical residents and fellows, and two dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with about 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###