2 area hospitals declared 'stroke ready'

Posted: Published on February 21st, 2015

This post was added by Dr Simmons

CHAMPAIGN Fast treatment is essential for the best chances of surviving a stroke, but getting the right treatment fast enough can depend on getting to a hospital prepared to deliver it.

Two smaller hospitals in the area, Kirby Medical Center, Monticello, and Carle Hoopeston Regional Health Center, Hoopeston, recently earned new designations as "emergent stroke ready" hospitals, meaning, in part, that they're prepared to administer the clot-busting treatment tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) for ischemic strokes, the most common type of stroke.

When administered within the first three hours after the onset of a stroke, tPA improves chances of survival for victims of ischemic strokes, which are caused by a blockage in a blood vessel to the brain.

The designation also means, in part, that the hospitals are equipped to conduct certain brain image tests and have transfer agreements in place with primary stroke center hospitals that can deliver more advanced care for stroke victims if necessary.

Both Carle Foundation Hospital and Presence Covenant Medical Center are primary stroke center hospitals. Danville's Presence United Samaritans Medical Center is an emergent stroke ready facility.

Part of a 2009 state law that took effect at the start of this year directs emergency medical service regions in the state to establish protocols for ambulance services to take potential stroke patients to either emergent stroke ready or primary stroke center hospitals unless circumstances dictate otherwise for example, neither a primary stroke or emergent stroke ready hospital is close enough, according to Peggy Jones, an Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network stroke consultant.

The goal is to identify those hospitals in the state prepared to treat stroke patients and have as many as possible tPA treatment-prepared, she said.

Of Illinois' 53 critical access hospitals, which have 25 inpatient beds or less and around-the-clock emergency service (among them Kirby Medical Center and Carle Hoopeston Regional Health Center) there have been 30 designated emergent stroke ready hospitals, Jones said. By the end of this month, she expects that number to grow to 40, she said.

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2 area hospitals declared 'stroke ready'

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