Memorial Hospital Stone County awarded for efforts to improve rural stroke care (2025)
The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Rural Gold award recognizes efforts to address the unique health needs of rural communities
WIGGINS, Miss. – July 16, 2025 — People who live in rural communities live an average of three years fewer than urban counterparts and have a 40% higher likelihood of developing heart disease and face a 30% increased risk for stroke mortality — a gap that has grown over the past two decades. (1, 2) Memorial Hospital Stone County is committed to changing that.
For efforts to optimize stroke care and eliminate rural health care outcome disparities, Memorial Hospital Stone County has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Rural Recognition Gold award.
The American Heart Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, recognizes the importance of health care services provided to people living in rural areas by rural hospitals that play a vital role in initiation of timely evidence-based care. For that reason, all rural hospitals participating in Get With The Guidelines – Stroke are eligible to receive award recognition based on a unique methodology focused on early acute stroke performance metrics.
“We are proud that our team at Memorial Hospital Stone County is being recognized for the important work we do every day to improve the lives of people in Stone County who are affected by stroke, giving them the best possible chance of recovery and survival,” said Memorial Health System Stroke Program Medical Director Dr. Lee Voulters. “As a hospital in a rural community, we deal with characteristics such as extended interfacility transportation times and limited staffing resources. We’ve made it a goal to make sure those hurdles do not affect the standard of care our stroke patients receive.”
Dr. Voulters continues, “Rural communities deserve high-quality stroke care. I’m proud of our team for their commitment to stroke care excellence and this achievement.”
The award recognizes hospitals for their efforts toward acute stroke care excellence demonstrated by composite score compliance to guideline-directed care for intravenous thrombolytic therapy, timely hospital inter-facility transfer, dysphagia screening, symptom timeline and deficit assessment documentation, emergency medical services communication, brain imaging and stroke expert consultation.
“Patients and health care professionals in Stone County face unique health care challenges and opportunities,” said Karen E. Joynt Maddox, M.D., MPH, co-author on the American Heart Association’s presidential advisory on rural health. “Memorial Health System has furthered this important work to improve care for all Americans, regardless of where they live.”
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1 American Heart Association. American Heart Association issues call to action for addressing inequities in rural health. February 10, 2020. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/american-heart-association-issues-call-to-action-for-addressing-inequities-in-rural-health; American Heart Association. Public Health AmeriCorps to address health inequity in rural communities. April 6, 2022. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/public-health-americorps-to-address-health-inequity-in-rural-communities.
2 Harrington R, et al. Call to Action: Rural Health: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. Circulation. 2020;141:e615–e644.
ABOUT MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM
Memorial Health System has been serving the Mississippi Gulf Coast since 1946. Located in Gulfport, Mississippi, Memorial is a not-for-profit public community hospital organized under the laws of the state of Mississippi and is jointly owned by the City of Gulfport and Harrison County. Memorial Health System includes three hospitals (Gulfport, Biloxi, and Stone County) licensed for 481 beds, a state-designated Level II Trauma Center, two nursing centers, outpatient surgery centers, satellite outpatient diagnostic and rehabilitation centers, and more than 100 Memorial Physician Clinics. Memorial offers several of the region’s most comprehensive clinical programs and medical specialties unique to the area, including a Level III Neonatal ICU and Mississippi’s first nationally certified Primary Stroke Center. Memorial is accredited by The Joint Commission, a Baby-Friendly Designated hospital, and is a member of the Mississippi Healthcare Collaborative. Visit wearememorial.com to learn more.
ABOUT GET WITH THE GUIDELINES®
Get With The Guidelines® is the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program that provides hospitals with the latest research-based guidelines. Developed with the goal of saving lives and hastening recovery, Get With The Guidelines has touched the lives of more than 14 million patients since 2001. For more information, visit heart.org.