New Illinois Law Improves Care for Stroke Patients by Getting Them to Specialty Centers like NCH

A new Illinois law that took effect Jan. 1 is changing the way emergency care is delivered to stroke patients. The law establishes a network of specialty stroke centers like the one at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights. The law also allows ambulances to immediately take suspected stroke patients to these state-of-the-art facilities, bypassing other nearby hospitals.

ShareThis Email PDF Print

NCH's Dr. Michael Hurley says the goal of the new Illinois law is to minimize the damage caused by stroke by transporting the patient to the most appropriate treatment facility as quickly as possible.

We now have the ability to rapidly assess a suspected stroke and provide advanced procedures to significantly diminish, if not reverse, the effects of a stroke and prevent long-term disability.

Arlington Heights, IL (PRWEB) January 11, 2010

This past summer, an 84-year-old man living with his wife in a Chicago suburb suffered a severe stroke late on a Friday afternoon. The man developed sudden complete paralysis down the right side of his body, was unable to speak, and did not respond to questions. At a high risk of dying from the effects of his stroke, the man amazingly was back to his normal self less than three hours later.

Fortunately, the man had been rushed to the emergency room at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, a designated Primary Stroke Center where he was immediately assessed and subsequently treated by a team of specialists in NeuroInterventional Services.

Under a new Illinois law this month, care for stroke patients is now organized similar to the familiar system for treating patients with major trauma. With trauma patients, ambulances typically transport them to hospitals that offer specialized trauma care, instead of going to the nearest hospital. Likewise, stroke patients in Illinois are now transported to advanced hospitals like Northwest Community Hospital.

“The goal of the law is to minimize the damage caused by stroke by transporting the patient to the most appropriate treatment facility as quickly as possible,” said Dr. Michael Hurley, a member of the NCH team. “It used to be that there wasn’t much that could be done to diminish the effects of a stroke, let alone restore a patient’s quality of life. We now have the ability to rapidly assess a suspected stroke and provide advanced procedures to significantly diminish, if not reverse, the effects of a stroke and prevent long-term disability.”

NCH’s program – established by Dr. Ali Shaibani, director of NeuroInterventional Surgery – follows the guidelines set by the American Stroke Association, including the provision of state-of-the-art interventions that can restore blood flow to the affected area of the brain after a stroke.

On average, a stroke occurs every 40 seconds. It is the leading cause of disability and the third-leading cause of death in the United States, behind cancer and diseases of the heart.

Get more information on NCH’s stroke program by visiting http://www.nch.org/stroke.

###