From an interview with
Dr. Timothy Hagan
McLeod Medical Director of Neurology

In 2014, McLeod Regional Medical Center became the first hospital in the region to become certified as a Primary Stroke Center. And we retain that certification to date. In 2019, McLeod Health Cheraw, McLeod Health Clarendon, McLeod Health Dillon, McLeod Health Loris and McLeod Health Seacoast became the first hospitals in the state of South Carolina to become Acute Stroke Ready by DNV GL Healthcare.

Not every hospital is prepared to treat a patient suffering from a dangerous stroke in the brain.  McLeod Hospital Neurologist Dr. Tim Hagen describes what it takes to be a “stroke-ready” emergency department or hospital:

What you’ll find is that when the patient comes in and they have had stroke-like symptoms, they’ll be fast-tracked to be evaluated for stroke. All McLeod hospitals that have emergeny rooms are acute stroke-ready. If you’re not stroke-ready, you don’t have a team that’s going to be actively looking for a stroke. 

The difference today—and why stroke-ready hospitals are so critical—is that we’ve moved from the ‘time is brain’ concept to the ‘tissue clock.’ If we get a patient evaluated quickly, and we’re able to determine with the perfusion testing and the CAT scan, angiogram and CT that the patient is a candidate for intervention, we can get that patient treated fast. That can increase their chance of being able to come home with little or no disability. On the other hand, if you miss that ‘tissue clock’ time, you may not have the opportunity to save the brain.

The key elements for a hospital to receive stroke-ready accreditation are understanding the guidelines and being able to meet those specific criteria. That includes the rapid evaluation of the stroke patient so that you’re able to get imaging within a very short amount of time. You must be able to administer TPA if the patient is an appropriate candidate for that treatment, as well as prepare the patient for a hospital procedure where a surgical team would pull the clot out of the large vessel in the brain if that’s in the patient’s best interest.  

You can test your stroke knowledge here.