St. Luke's becomes Philippines' only JCI-certified hospital for stroke care
MANILA, Philippines — The Stroke Service of St. Luke's Medical Center has been certified by the Joint Commission International (JCI) as a Center of Excellence.
The hospital — with branches in Quezon City and Bonifacio Global City — becomes the only JCI-certified hospital for stroke care in the country.
St. Luke's stroke care history dates back to 1999 through the establishment of the country's first Acute Stroke Unit, which has 24/7 on-duty vascular neurologists and stroke-trained nurses, followed by the introduction of the Brain Attack Team and Brain Attack Code the following year.
Doctors at the hospital decided to attempt for JCI certification after realizing that their Stroke Service met the qualifying standards and assets, including Rapid Artificial Intelligence stroke brain imaging analysis, always open and available magnetic resonance imaging or MRI, 1152-slice computed tomography (CT) scan, and rehabilitation.
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The hospital also boasts of a 0% treatment complication rate among stroke patients administered with clot-busting medication, therefore effectively mitigating the risk of hemorrhage.
St. Luke's Stroke Service head Dr. Maria Carissa Pineda-Franks told members of the media at a launch last October 19 that JCI certification goes up for renewal every three years, and the team is already preparing to retain certification.
Pineda-Franks also shared recent trends for strokes in the Philippines, where individuals as young as 20 years old are becoming susceptible and hypertension remains the leading factor for strokes.
"People are now more aware of stroke symptoms," Pineda-Franks said, attributing it to information dissmenination and public awareness.
The doctor acknowledged that the Stroke Service is expensive because of the machinery involved, adding that prices differ among patients depending on the treatment and analysis needed.
