Sunshine Coast University Hospital's stroke team have been awarded for providing excellent stroke care to the community.
The team has been presented with a World Stroke Organisation Angels Awards Gold Status award.
“It's a fantastic way to let the community know that when they come to Sunshine Coast University Hospital that they're going to get timely, hyper acute treatments, within the recommended time frames, guided by national stroke targets,” Sunshine Coast Health Stroke Clinical Nurse Consultant Bailey McNamara said.
"It showcases our hard work, we're coming every day to work to provide the best timely, hyper acute therapies for our patients and making sure that they're receiving, quality stroke care," Bailey said.
The award recognises the team's efforts to ensure patients are receiving a high level of care, and is based off data from October-December last year showing the hospital is excelling in a number of key criteria.
"They're achieving great things in stroke, such as thrombolysing patients in under 60 minutes," Stroke Angels Consultant Queensland Rob Hopkinson said.
Stroke Nurse Practitioner Jess Pyman said the community should be aware of the symptoms of stroke, as every minute matters when it comes to seeking treatment.
"The acronym FAST represents the most common signs or symptoms of a stroke," she said
"So 'F' stands for face - that could be their facial weakness, 'A' stands for their arm - so that could be arm weakness or loss of sensation or in coordination, 'S' is speech so that could be slurring speech, incomprehensive speech or just not being able to understand or people understanding them, and 'T' is time - call an ambulance ASAP, get to a hospital immediately."