Shands Jacksonville is the first hospital in Northeast Florida to be accredited by the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) as a Comprehensive Stroke Center, sharing the distinction with only three other hospitals in the state.
“The designation is a testament to Shands Jacksonville’s commitment to bring the most advanced stroke care to the people of Northeast Florida,” said Alan R. Berger, M.D., professor and chairman of the University of Florida Department of Neurology and director of the Shands Jacksonville Neuroscience Institute.
Stroke patients seen at the Comprehensive Stroke Program at Shands Jacksonville receive specialized care, treatment and resources not available at hospitals without the designation. A team of highly trained neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, emergency medicine physicians and specialized nurses are on-site 24 hours a day. Other hospitals have a neurologist on call who responds when a stroke patient is brought in. Shands is able to reduce the devastating effects of stroke by having a rapid response team ready around the clock, 365 days a year.
Shands Jacksonville offers the latest advances in stroke treatments, including a clot busting therapy known as tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA. TPA is available only at hospitals with a primary stroke designation. Shands Jacksonville holds both a primary and comprehensive designation. By using tPA, Shands has successfully reversed paralysis, slurred speech and other devastating effects of stroke.
In addition to cutting edge treatment, Shands is on the front lines of stroke education. Scott Silliman, M.D., a UF associate professor of neurology and director of the Comprehensive Stroke Program at Shands Jacksonville, realized the crucial role EMS staff play and developed programs to train these first responders. Since those programs began in 1996, Silliman has trained hundreds of EMS staff in Northeast Florida and South Georgia. Part of the training has involved educating various counties on the importance of using air transports like TraumaOne to get patients to the hospital quickly.
“The acute transport stroke program that we have developed allows up-to-date stroke care to be delivered to acute stroke victims who reside within a large region that extends across the Florida peninsula,” said Silliman.