September 10, 2007

DES MOINES, Iowa­—When suffering a stroke— time is brain. Providing care quickly using the latest clinical protocols and medications can mean an improved quality of life following a stroke. The Joint Commission has recognized Mercy Medical Center’s advances in stroke care and designated Mercy  the only  Primary Stroke Center in central Iowa and awarded the Gold Seal of Approval™ for health care quality and safety. 

“Earning the Primary Stroke Center certification is a great accomplishment for Mercy,” said Dr. Jacoby. “This designation demonstrates to our community and our patients that Mercy provides stroke care that is among the best in the nation.”

As part of Mercy’s Joint Commission effort, the Stroke Team worked with Mercy’s Emergency Department and local EMS providers to create the Mercy Stroke Alert Program.  With Mercy Stroke Alert, all strokes are treated like traumas. When an EMS provider contacts Mercy emergency dispatch and provides information consistent with a stroke, a special stroke response team is mobilized. The team includes an emergency physician, neurologist, stroke coordinator (nurse), and a medical imaging tech and laboratory technician. A CT scanner is cleared for immediate testing and a suite is also available for surgical intervention. The team uses the same established protocols to treat each patient.

The patient is met at the door and taken to a treatment room— equipped with a “Clot Box” that contains stroke medications. Assessments using the Cincinnati Stroke Scale and a blood test have been done before arrival. Stroke symptoms, and a regular blood sugar, results in a patient being given the “clot buster” drug Tissue Plasminogin Activator (TPA). TPA dissolves the blood clot and can improve a stroke patient’s quality-of-life substantially if given within three hours following a stroke. Treatment times for stroke patients have been reduced by 40 minutes using this standardized protocol.      

Mercy’s Stroke Team is led by Dr. Michael Jacoby, medical director of the Stroke Team and the Mercy Ruan Neurology Clinic and Research Center, and Terri Hamm, Stroke Team coordinator. To be eligible for  the stroke center designation Mercy’s Stroke Team hosted a Joint Commission surveyor, who reviewed and evaluated Mercy’s documentation for education and treatment of stroke, and visited many areas of the hospital involved with the care of stroke patients.    

Each year more than 800,000 people in the United States experience a stroke, which is the third-leading cause of death in this country and a leading cause of serious, long-term disability.