In 2023, Utah hospitals participating in the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines’ Target: Stroke program scored the highest percentage of patients who received intravenous thrombolytics within one hour of arrival at the hospital, referred to as the “door-to-needle” time.
The program guidelines set a benchmark goal for participating hospitals to meet the 45- and 60-minute door-to-needle times for 75% and 85% of acute ischemic stroke patients, respectively.
Among the 17 participating hospitals in Utah, 87.1% of patients received a door-to-needle time within 45 minutes and 95.9% received a door-to-needle time within 60 minutes.
“Achieving guideline-directed door-to-needle times is a critical benchmark that has been shown to significantly reduce disability and save lives,” Steven Messe, MD, volunteer chair of the American Heart Association’s Stroke Systems of Care Advisory Group, told Becker’s. “Participation in the Get With The Guidelines program helps hospitals meet this goal by providing evidence-based protocols, quality improvement tools and the means to capture and analyze real-time data. It empowers care teams to identify and close gaps, standardize care, and stay aligned with the latest science.”
Here are the 45- and 60- minute door-to-needle times for hospitals participating in the American Heart Association’s program, by state:
| State | Within 45 minutes | Within 60 minutes |
| Alabama | 56.7% | 82.7% |
| Arizona | 70.3% | 89.5% |
| Arkansas | 51.5% | 77.8% |
| California | 78.4% | 92.4% |
| Colorado | 78.4% | 92.4% |
| Connecticut | 63.1% | 87.1% |
| Delaware | 78.4% | 88.1% |
| Florida | 83.1% | 93.1% |
| Georgia | 77.1% | 90.7% |
| Hawaii | 79.3% | 90.6% |
| Illinois | 61.1% | 82.7% |
| Indiana | 62.3% | 85.2% |
| Iowa | 46.2% | 75.6% |
| Kansas | 79.5% | 92.2% |
| Kentucky | 68.4% | 88.5% |
| Louisiana | 74.2% | 92.8% |
| Maine | 60.0% | 80.5% |
| Maryland | 59.5% | 86.1% |
| Massachusetts | 44.8% | 73.8% |
| Michigan | 70.3% | 89.2% |
| Minnesota | 70.9% | 88.4% |
| Mississippi | 49.2% | 72.8% |
| Missouri | 72.8% | 89.0% |
| Montana | 64.0% | 82.1% |
| Nebraska | 52.9% | 77.3% |
| Nevada | 65.6% | 85.1% |
| New Hampshire | 77.2% | 90.4% |
| New Jersey | 71.1% | 88.6% |
| New Mexico | 47.7% | 67.9% |
| New York | 70.0% | 89.4% |
| North Carolina | 69.9% | 87.6% |
| North Dakota | 57.1% | 80.0% |
| Ohio | 65.1% | 86.9% |
| Oklahoma | 63.1% | 84.4% |
| Oregon | 68.7% | 86.7% |
| Pennsylvania | 59.0% | 83.3% |
| Rhode Island | 80.3% | 92.4% |
| South Carolina | 71.4% | 88.0% |
| Tennessee | 74.8% | 88.9% |
| Texas | 74.6% | 90.5% |
| Utah | 87.1% | 95.9% |
| Virginia | 77.4% | 93.1% |
| Washington | 66.3% | 85.5% |
| West Virginia | 54.6% | 76.7% |
| Wisconsin | 57.9% | 78.7% |
Note: Data from participating hospitals in Alaska, the District of Columbia, Idaho, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming were too small to report.
Editor’s note: This article was updated May 22, 2025 at 11:00 am CT.
