Bourbon Community Hospital awarded for efforts to improve rural stroke care

PARIS, Ky. (July 29, 2025) —For efforts to optimize stroke care and eliminate rural health care outcome disparities, Bourbon Community Hospital has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Rural Recognition Silver 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 Bourbon Community Hospital is being recognized for the important work we do every day to improve the lives of people in Bourbon County who are affected by stroke, giving them the best possible chance of recovery and survival,” said Tommy Haggard, chief executive officer. “Rural communities deserve high quality stroke care and 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 Paris 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. Bourbon Community Hospital has furthered this important work to improve care for all Americans, regardless of where they live.”

To learn more about Bourbon Community Hospital’s stroke care, please visit BourbonHospital.com. To find a provider, call 888.847.3627 (DOCS).