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 The Illinois Stroke Law, passed in 2009 and updated in January,
identifies hospitals capable of providing emergency stroke care and
directs emergency medical services personnel to transport possible
stroke patients to those hospitals.
“This designation ensures that all stroke patients, regardless of
where they live, have access to rapid care within the narrow
treatment window,” said Dolan Dalpoas, president of Abraham Lincoln
Memorial Hospital, an affiliate of Memorial Health System.
“Stroke designation for our hospital now allows local access to the
care needed beginning the moment a patient enters the hospital to
the time a life-saving, clot-busting drug is administered within the
recommended 60-minute treatment window.”
To be eligible for the stroke-ready hospital designation, Abraham
Lincoln adjusted its emergency stroke care policies and procedures
to align with nationally recognized, evidence-based standards, such
as those from the American Heart/Stroke Association.
Each designated hospital has around-the-clock video-conferencing
capability with stroke-trained neurologists. ALMH launched a
partnership withMemorial Medical Center in Springfield, another
Memorial Health System affiliate, to offer video-conferencing
technology for stroke care in 2012.
“Our partnership with Memorial Medical Center gives our community
24/7 access to experienced stroke-trained neurologists who will work
with us to evaluate and administer the most effective and
appropriate treatments for people suffering from acute stroke or
other neurological conditions,” Dalpoas said.
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“This means more people in our community will have access to
neurologists and will receive the life-saving care they need
close to home,” he said. “Any patients who may need a higher
level of care can be quickly identified and transferred to
Memorial Medical Center to receive additional treatments
including minimally invasive neurointerventional procedures.
Everyone else will be able to stay in their community and close
to home.”
Memorial Medical Center is certified as a primary stroke center
by The Joint Commission. The certification recognizes Memorial
for “exceptional efforts to foster better outcomes for stroke
care,” according to The Joint Commission.
“With stroke, time is brain. Each second a patient waits to be
treated denies the brain of much needed blood and oxygen,” said
Dr. Katherine Anderson, the medical director in ALMH’s emergency
department. “The cells and tissues in the brain begin to die,
causing what can be irreversible damage resulting in
disabilities like paralysis on one side of the body, loss of
speech and many other deficits.”
[Text received; ANGELA STOLTZENBURG,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL]
Abraham Lincoln Memorial
Hospital is located at 200 Stahlhut Drive in Lincoln. For more
information about ALMH, visit
www.ALMH.org .
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