Becoming a Primary Stroke Center
To ensure the highest care for you, your family, your friends and your neighbors, Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital (SNMH) is focusing on becoming a nationally certified Primary Stroke Center by the end of the year. SNMH is launching this extraordinary effort to increase and improve the quality of care we can provide in the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients. Stroke affects approximately 150 western Nevada County residents each year and 700,000 nationwide. Stroke kills about 150,000 people each year making it the third leading cause of death in the country behind heart disease and cancer. Nationally, there are approximately 4.8 million stroke survivors of whom two-thirds are moderately or severely disabled. The single most important fact is that 80% of all strokes are preventable! Why is it important to become nationally certified? Treatment depends on very rapid response time by the public, 911 responders, the emergency department staff and utilizing trained stroke specialists. To apply for certification, all clinical staff and physicians that come in contact with possible stroke patients must go through specialized training. The concepts behind Primary Stroke Centers include a heightened state of readiness for stroke patients, making sure hospital-wide protocols are in place to rapidly identify and intervene and a multi-disciplinary team who can deliver rapid and sophisticated care. It is crucial that stroke patients receive top-notch care in order to reduce the likelihood of permanent disability or death.
Why now? As the only hospital for many rural pockets in the Sierra Nevada foothills serving a high percent of senior residents, SNMH understands how important this program is to a population that has no other options for accessing stroke care quickly. The closest Primary Stroke Center is in the Sacramento area. When seconds and minutes matter most, traveling 45 minutes out of our community for care is not an option for our residents. Once the necessary steps to becoming a Primary Stroke Center are in place, SNMH will have a standard set of protocols that have been established as the national standard in treating stroke patients effectively and immediately. Our medical and hospital staff will be properly trained and educated on stroke. We will also educate our community on how to prevent a stroke as well as how to recognize the signs of a stroke. Proper preventive care and education will dramatically increase the number of stroke patients that are treated immediately, which is vital to their ability to recover from this traumatic event. In addition, the purchase of the RP-7 Remote Presence system (the robot) will enable our emergency room physicians to connect 24/7 to a neurological specialist locally or at another Primary Stroke Center increasing opportunities for a second opinion and to discuss complicated cases.
What is next? To become a nationally certified Primary Stroke Center, hospitals must have specially trained staff and equipment as well as advanced medical capabilities. For SNMH, that means over 185 nurses, clinicians, specialists and physicians must go through an intensive training. While our hospital will handle part of that financial burden, the initial costs to get the program certified will be several hundred thousand dollars and is too extensive for them to do without the Hospital Foundation’s assistance. Philanthropy must play an integral role which is why Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital Foundation has launched “A Stroke of Luck” to raise at least $100,000 for this effort. It is times like this we can see the how a reciprocal relationship between our hospital and community works. Together, the Hospital and our community can work collectively ensuring the quality of care we need is available.
