Jacksonville Memorial Hospital has received redesignation as an Acute Stroke-Ready Hospital for its ability to provide lifesaving care to patients experiencing a stroke.
The certification is awarded to hospitals and emergency centers across the state that meet requirements set by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Medical Director of JMH’s Emergency Department Dr. Elias Trace says the redesignation shows that the protocols in place for a patient showing stroke symptoms in the ER are ready to administer life-saving treatment: “What that means for JMH is that we have designed and implemented protocols for the rapid assessment and treatment of acute strokes. What that means for patients is that they can feel comfortable coming to Jacksonville Memorial Hospital’s ER knowing that there going to get some state-of-the-art care for stroke. We are a smaller hospital, but we are not a comprehensive stroke center like Springfield Memorial Hospital or HSHS St. John’s Hospital – but what we have is the ability to basically diagnose and start treatment, and then expediting transport to a comprehensive stroke center.”
Dr. Trace says time is always of the essence for a person experiencing a stroke or stroke-like symptoms: “For every, basically minute that you are having a stroke, people throw out that it’s somewhere in the range of 500,000 to a million neurons that are at risk of dying. So, getting to care as soon as possible, as soon as symptoms are in the onset, it helps to improve outcomes.”
Stroke is a leading cause of death for Americans, as well as a leading cause of serious long-term disability. Patients who arrive at the emergency room within three hours of their first symptoms often have less disability three months after a stroke than those who received delayed care. Trace says the re-designation serves to recognize the tremendous effort that JMH’s doctors, nurses, and ancillary staff put in each day taking care of the people in the Jacksonville area.