CHI St. Joseph’s Health in Park Rapids Receives Award for Stroke Program

By Zy’Riah Simmons

Earlier this month, CHI St Joseph’s Health in Park Rapids received an award for the stroke program, where they were recognized for addressing the community’s need for a stroke-designated hospital in their area.

The Minnesota Department of Health designates hospitals throughout Minnesota to prepare them to provide the best care for their patients and their community. The department came up with criteria that hospitals needed to meet to be deemed stroke ready. CHI Saint Joseph’s Health received its designation in June 2023.

“We had some foundation laid prior to us initiating the program, so the process had already been started,” said CHI St. Joseph’s Health ED ICU Director Laura Gonska. “We just built up that foundation and clearly defined roles. We came up with a very comprehensive stroke team, and how we did that is we involved all of the different departments. So we have members on our stroke team from lab, radiology, pharmacy, patient access, the hospital … we have data abstraction. And all of that group came together and helped build a really strong program.”

Everyone in the hospital plays a role in keeping the stroke program strong and striving. But Gonska pointed out one specific group that is working keep improving care.

“[We] started the program off with our current nurse champions. We wanted someone available to our staff at all times to give some of that real-time feedback, and we continue to grow with that,” explained Gonska. “So even though we started off strong, those RN nurse champions keep growing our program by developing education for staff. They’re developing education for patients. And so we are expanding on what we already have.”

CHI St. Joseph’s Health received the Community Champion Award for their meaningful and long-term improvement in stroke care. A special thanks was given to the RN nurse champions for their collaboration with the program.

“[It was a] really good feeling to receive that award. We put a lot of time into this program and the RN nurse champions that brought that additional piece to this program really deserve that recognition. So to receive that award, it just emphasized how important they are to our program.”

CHI St. Joseph’s Health was one of seven hospitals recognized for their commitment to providing quality stroke care at the Minnesota Statewide Stroke Conference.