Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center receives stroke center certification

Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center announced this week it has received Primary Stroke Center certification.

The certification comes from The Joint Commission, formerly known as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center is the only hospital between Arcadia and Colton that has the designation, according to a statement from the hospital.

The certification followed an on-site evaluation and demonstrating it met nationally developed standards for stroke care, the statement said.

With the certification the hospital now qualifies to be a member of Los Angeles County's Emergency Medical Services Agency's Approved Stroke Centers.

Such hospitals are "linked to improve response times, treatment and overall outcomes for people in Los Angeles County who suffer a stroke. A similar network of hospitals in San Bernardino County hopes to have their network of stroke specialty centers operational by mid-year," the statement said.

"Each year approximately 795,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke, which is the nation's third leading cause of death," said Dr. Bhupat Desai, a neurologist and the medical director of the hospital's Stroke Program.

Stroke Centers provide a series of services that play a role in preventing death or disability in stroke patients, Dr. William Koenig, medical director of the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency said in the statement.

L.A. County's stroke network couples primary stroke centers with a policy that allows emergency personnel to take select 911 stroke patients to a primary stroke center instead of the closest hospital in order to ensure specialized care is received quickly, the statement said.