February 2011 The online News Magazine of Saint Mary’s Health Care

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Cover Story –Perfect Score!

Saint Mary’s Stroke Center Receives Perfect Score for Certification!

On January 7, 2011, The Joint Commission Surveyor visited Saint Mary’s Stroke Center. We were awarded a perfect score for primary advanced stroke center certification.

Muhammad Farooq, MD, and Molly Gallagher, RNOne of the 600 certified primary stroke centers in the United States, to be eligible, Saint Mary’s first had to become a Joint Commission-accredited acute care hospital, and then Saint Mary’s Stroke Center had to demonstrate these standards for the certification process:

• Program management
• Delivering or facilitating clinical care
• Supporting self-management
• Clinical information management
• Performance improvement and measurement

Saint Mary’s Stroke Center provides support immediately upon someone’s entrance into the Emergency Department, if a stroke is suspected.

Emergency medical technicians are trained to bring a suspected stroke victim directly to the CT scanner in the Emergency Department, and after a stroke is diagnosed, physicians in the Emergency department are trained to administer tPA, a drug that dramatically improves patient outcomes.

Sadly, most people don’t seek immediate treatment.

“Only five percent of people who suffer a stroke seek emergency treatment within the recommended three-hour window,” said Muhammad Farooq, MD, Grand Rapids’ first vascular neurologist. Farooq is the medical director of the Stroke Center, and is responsible for seeing patients in the follow-up clinic. Molly Gallagher, RN, assists Farooq in the stroke clinic.

Timely treatment of a transient ischemic attack is crucial, as after the first 48 hours of a transient ischemic attack, a person has an increased chance of having another stroke, according to Farooq.

Just how many people have strokes? One American every 40 seconds suffers a stroke, according to 2009 data.

“More than half of inpatient neuroscience visits are due to strokes,” said Farooq, emphasizing how widespread this epidemic is. All of the teams on Hauenstein 3 who care for patients ensure that stroke patients receive a follow-up consultation with Dr. Farooq within two to four weeks. Follow-up is then provided after six months, then after a year, “as long as everything looks okay.”

Prevention is the best way to treat a stroke. Stroke risk factors are:
• Hypertension
• High cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Smoking
• Obesity and
• Sleep Apnea

Community outreach is crucial to stop this epidemic of stroke patients.

An All Women’s Stroke Support Group will host its first meeting on Monday, February 28, at 6 p.m. This group targets women stroke survivors and their caregivers and will also be an educational and informative event, with a social worker present to assist patients and caregivers with resource management.

Funded through the Grand Girlfriends’ donor group, this stroke support group focuses on the special needs of women:
• who have experienced a stroke;
• who are caring for someone who has suffered a stroke;
• who want to prevent a stroke.

Public is welcome, but you must reserve your place by calling (616) 685-5438 by Friday, February 25.

(To meet the community's growing need for stroke support and stroke prevention, this support group targets women over the age of 60 and their caregivers.)

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