American Heart Association presents numerous awards to facilities in Sarasota and Venice
This month, the American Heart Association (AHA) has recognized both Sarasota Memorial hospital campuses “as role models for delivering lifesaving stroke and heart care,” the health care system has announced.
As part of the AHA’s 2025 quality review, a news release explains, Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) in Sarasota and SMH-Venice received multiple Get with the Guidelines awards, which recognized the hospital teams “for advanced treatments, safety protocols and evidence-based practices that promote the best outcomes for stroke patients and those suffering cardiac arrest in the hospital.”
Dr James Fiorica, chief medical officer of the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, “credits the hospitals’ skilled clinicians and their unwavering focus on research-based care for SMH’s superior performance and patient outcomes,” the release adds.
“Clinical expertise, best practices and patient preference are at the heart of every decision we make,” Fiorica said in the release. “Asking critical questions and applying the latest advances in medical science ensures our patients receive the best possible care.”
“In this year’s study, SMH’s Sarasota and Venice campuses received AHA’s highest honor for stroke care and multiple awards for emergency heart care,” the pointed out: Stroke Gold Plus Award.
“The Stroke Gold Plus — Honor Roll Elite Plus designation recognizes the SMH-Sarasota and SMH-Venice campuses for demonstrating superior performance over multiple years, often exceeding AHA standards for accurate diagnosis, rapid response, evidence-based treatment and responsible follow-up care, education and rehabilitation for stroke patients.,” the release points out.
The AHA gave SMH-Sarasota two supplemental awards “for providing additional layers of specialized care for stroke patients,” the release says:
- “The Stroke Gold Plus — Advanced Therapy award recognizes the team’s ability to deliver advanced interventions for applicable stroke patients.
- “The Stroke Gold Plus — Diabetes Honor Roll reflects additional safety measures the hospital takes to identify and manage potential complications of stroke patients with Type 2 diabetes.”
Further, the release notes, the AHA presented both Sarasota Memorial campuses with the Gold Resuscitation Award, which recognizes them “for having expert teams, technologies and protocols in place to deliver immediate, life-saving resuscitation care to patients experiencing cardiac arrest in the hospital. The hospitals also received supplemental Target CPR and Survival awards reflecting the hospitals’ implementation of best practices and continual focus on developing next generation, evidence-based practice in resuscitation science,” the release points out.
AHA plans to recognize Sarasota Memorial on July 29 in the U.S. News and World Report’s Best Hospitals edition, the release adds.