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Thomasville Medical Center’s Stroke Center has added a new tool in responding to emergency stroke and critical neurology care, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, as part of the new teleneurology medicine program with Forsyth Stroke & Neurosciences Center and the Novant Neurosciences Network Solution. As a nationally certified stroke center, this new teleneurology service bolsters Thomasville Medical Center’s capabilities enabling medical staff to rapidly connect with neurologists using videoconferencing technology at the patient’s bedside in the Emergency Department.
Dr. Keith Miller, Medical Director of the Thomasville Medical Center Stroke Center said, “We are proud to continue to offer our patients the best possibly emergency neurologic care. This partnership with Novant Neurosciences Network Solution, coordinated through the Forsyth Stroke & Neurosciences Center, is an extension of that commitment and ensures our patients will receive immediate specialty care day or night. This teleneurology service adds to the clinical strength of our stroke center and will help us to even better serve our stroke patients as well as our local community.”
The new program will link Thomasville Medical Center and Specialists On Call (SOC), a Joint Commission-accredited organization of board-certified, specialty trained, community and university neurologists. SOC neurologists have a minimum of 10 years in clinical practice and include nationally recognized physicians affiliated with departments of neurology at world-class medical centers, including Brown University, Florida State University College of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine. SOC physicians have provided more than 7,000 consults in 2009 for neurological emergencies.
“Sixteen SOC physicians are now affiliated with Forsyth Comprehensive Neurology and have become licensed in North Carolina and credentialed at both Thomasville Medical Center and Forsyth Medical Center,” Dr. Cheré Chase, M.D., medical director of stroke and neurocritical care at Forsyth Medical Center says. Many people are aware of the dangers of high blood pressure, or may be able to recognize the signs of a heart attack. But most think a stroke can’t happen to them. “Thomasville Medical Center will be able to have real-time
physician-to-physician consultation to quickly determine the best course of treatment for patients requiring emergency or advanced neurological care, continues Dr. Chase.“
When a potential stroke victim enters the emergency department, the staff will be connected to an on-call expert neurologist and establish a videoconferencing link using a mobile unit that can be brought to the patient’s bedside. The consulting neurologist will then be able to view and discuss diagnostic test results, including CT scan images performed at TMC. During the consult, physicians, patients and family members will continue to have real-time discussions about diagnostic results, course of treatment and patient response.
A significant advantage of having an experienced critical stroke care neurologist involved immediately, is to assist in determining if the clot-busting drug tPA should be part of the treatment. This is important as tPA must be administered within a three hour window from the onset of the first stroke symptoms.
When a person suffers a stroke, 1.9 million nerve cells in the brain die every minute. This steady loss of brain cells can often be curtailed through the use of tPA.
Many people are aware of the dangers of high blood pressure, or may be able to recognize the signs of a heart attack. But most think a stroke can’t happen to them. If you think someone may be having a stroke, act F.A.S.T. and do this simple test:
Face: Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face droop?
Arms: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
Speech: Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence. Are the words slurred? Can he/she repeat the sentence correctly?
Time: If the person shows any of these symptoms, time is important. Call 911 or get to the hospital fast. Brain cells are dying.
Thomasville Medical Center was the first community hospital to launch Stroke Sense and has been a nationally accredited Stroke Center since 2006 and reaccredited in 2009.
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