“We can’t afford to miss anything,” said physician Lance Lee, stroke program medical director at Glendale Adventist.
Under the new program, paramedics must take a stroke patient to a certified hospital that is no more than 30 minutes away from their initial location.
Glendale Adventist was the second hospital in the county to be stroke-certified by the Joint Commission, a nonprofit organization made up of health-care professionals who accredit thousands of medical groups, Lee said.
The medical center is one of three hospitals in the San Fernando region, including Northridge Hospital Medical Center and Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, that will offer immediate stroke care, he said.
Lee expects emergency stroke admissions to double and possibly triple as a result of the new system.
Extensive preparation went into establishing a 24-hour stroke care center, he said.
“The lab has to be ready, the radiologist and ER have to be ready, nursing has to be ready to treat these patients because the treatment is time-limited,” Lee said.
Time becomes a critical factor from the onset of a stroke.
“We are talking about a treatment that has to be given within a three-hour window,” he said.
The 30-minute ambulance ride further diminishes the amount of time doctors have to treat the patient, he said. Following the ride, nurses and doctors get the patient’s medical history, which takes another 30 minutes.
If a patient has a blood-clot-related stroke, a radiologist will perform a brain scan, he said.
Treatment could range from surgery to a clot-dissolving drug.
All the while, doctors must explain their treatment options to the patients and family members.
