NCH Receives 2025 American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Get With The Guidelines® Gold Plus Achievement Awards

Naples Comprehensive Health (NCH) has once again been nationally recognized for excellence in stroke care, earning the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s (AHA/ASA) 2025 Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Achievement Award, with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus – Advanced Therapy, and Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll. These distinctions highlight NCH’s unwavering commitment to following the latest, evidence-based treatment guidelines proven to improve outcomes for patients experiencing stroke.

The Gold Plus Achievement Award recognizes NCH for meeting specific quality measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients over a sustained period. The Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus Advanced Therapy distinction highlights NCH’s commitment to delivering critical interventions faster than the national standard. Additionally, the Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award reflects NCH’s dedication to addressing one of the key risk factors for stroke – managing diabetes.

As Southwest Florida’s leading provider of advanced stroke care, NCH is proud to be the only Joint Commission–certified Comprehensive Stroke Center on Florida’s West Coast and one of just five in the entire state. These additional prestigious recognitions from the AHA/ASA reflect NCH’s continued success in applying the most up-to-date, evidence-based treatment guidelines to improve outcomes for our patients.

Dr Mazen AbuAwad MD

“Stroke care demands speed, precision, and expertise,” said Mazen AbuAwad, MD, the John and Susan Morrison Endowed Chair and Executive Director of the NCH Wingard Stroke Institute. “These awards affirm the dedication of our physicians, nurses, and entire care team who work tirelessly to deliver lifesaving interventions and help patients achieve the best possible outcomes. It also reinforces the trust our community places in NCH as the region’s premier destination for stroke treatment.”

The NCH Wingard Stroke Institute treats more than 800 stroke patients each year and consistently exceeds national benchmarks for treatment speed and quality. NCH’s door-to-needle time – the time it takes to deliver clot-busting medication after a stroke patient arrives – averages well below the national standard. The Institute is also the only center in Southwest Florida certified to perform mechanical thrombectomy, a minimally invasive procedure used to remove large clots, further solidifying NCH’s reputation for advanced stroke interventions.

Looking ahead, NCH is preparing to expand its stroke care capabilities even further. In June 2025, we celebrated the groundbreaking of the R.M. Schulze Family Heart & Stroke Critical Care Center, which will serve as the future home of the Wingard Stroke Institute. Scheduled to open in 2027, this state-of-the-art, 180,000-square-foot facility will feature advanced neurointerventional suites, expanded operating rooms, and 54 private rooms dedicated to cardiac, vascular, and stroke patients.

For more information about NCH’s stroke care services, visit www.NCHmd.org.

ABOUT NCH

NCH (Naples Comprehensive Health) is an Advanced Community Healthcare System™ serving Southwest Florida with premier routine, critical, and specialty care. NCH, a locally governed non-profit, is recognized as one of Healthgrades America’s Top 100 Hospitals which puts it in the top 2% in the nation for clinical excel lence, in addition to being named a Top 50 Hospital for Surgical Care. The system is more than just two hospitals (referred to as the NCH Baker Hospital and NCH North Hospital) with a total of 713 beds – NCH is an alliance of over 750 physicians and medical facilities in dozens of locations throughout Southwest Florida and is the region’s only Joint Commission accredited Comprehensive Stroke Center. NCH cardiac care is ranked top-3 in the state by Healthgrades. NCH collaborates with the Hospital for Special Surgery for orthopedics, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital for pediatrics, and ProScan Imaging for radiology services, ensuring top-tier medical care is available in Southwest Florida. With the largest provider network, urgent/immediate care centers, diagnostic facilities, and two hospitals, NCH is always advancing the quality of care near you. For more information, visit www.NCHmd.org.