Big f*cking whoopee.
This tells you nothing about this hospital being the best. You want to know the RESULTS, not how fast your door-to-needle time is. If they were any good at all they would have a negative time, needle prior to entering the emergency room door. What is their 30 day deaths, 100% recovery?
http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/2015/07/03/falls-stroke-centre-among-best-in-ontario
For the third year in a row, the Niagara District Stroke Centre in Niagara Falls has the best “door-to-needle” time in Ontario.
That is the time patients wait from the moment they enter hospital to when they receive the life-saving drug, t-PA.
While the province strives to achieve a 60-minute window for patients
to get the clot-busting medication, the Niagara Health System average
is approximately 30 minutes.
“It ensures really great outcomes for our patients. We know that the
quicker that they can get that clot-busting medication, the better that
their outcome is going to be,” said Greater Niagara General Hospital
Site Director Rosemary Frketich.
The stroke centre has operated out of GNGH since April 2003. The NHS
has been providing the t-PA drug that may stop an ischemic stroke since
May 2005.
According to a recently released report card by the Ontario Stroke
Network, the Niagara stroke program continues to excel in a number of
key areas.
In addition to how quickly the t-PA drug is administered, the centre
performed among the best in the province for the proportion of stroke
patients who received a brain CT or MRI within 24 hours of arrival at
the emergency department, and the percentage of patients discharged to
rehabilitation.
Program co-ordinator Leanne Hammond said the achievements come down
to the “expertise and commitment of the stroke team” at GNGH.
That includes stroke-nurse specialists, emergency-room doctors and
neurologists who work collaboratively, as well as with Niagara Emergency
Medical Services personnel who often bring stroke patients to the
hospital.
Frketich, who is also the health system’s director of emergency
services, said the stroke team at GNGH follows a “really clear process
and expectations that have been established.”
“The team knows when that stroke (patient) is coming in the door, and
working with our EMS partners to bring them here right away, that there
are clear processes that happen the same, all the time, so using those
standardized processes has really helped. People know what to do and
when to do it.”
Stroke symptoms usually appear suddenly and include loss of strength
or numbness in the face, arm or leg, difficulty speaking, vision
problems, severe and unusual headache and loss of balance.
Hammond and Frketich said it’s vital to call 911 as soon as signs and symptoms appear.
“Our EMS (partners) are trained to bring you to the correct centre,
depending on your symptoms,” said Hammond. “You don’t need to make any
of those decisions. If you have any of those symptoms, please just call
911. We would rather you over-call then not call. We can always assess
you and decide that’s, perhaps, not what it is.”
Hammond said millions of brain cells die “every minute that you do not call 911 or do not get evaluated for t-PA.
“Also, the sooner you come to us ... the sooner we can access the
system of rehab as well. We have really collaborative relationships with
Hotel Dieu Shaver (Health and Rehabilitation Centre). If you come to
the stroke centre and you are evaluated, assessed and then moved on to
rehab, that’s really important too because best practice does say that
rehab is where you’re going to make most of your gains.”
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