WMH Gets Special Designation For Stroke Victim Treatment

Wright Memorial Hospital of Trenton has been designated as a Time Critical Diagnosis Center for stroke patients.
WMH, which is a member of Saint Luke’s Health System and affiliated with its Marion Bloch Neuroscience Institute, was awarded the designation along with all Saint Luke’s Hospitals in Missouri as part of a new Missouri law that requires the designation of hospitals to which stroke patients should be taken for treatment. Missouri is the first state in the nation to designate where stroke patients should be taken rather than having that determined based on the patient’s geographical location.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the Missouri Foundation for Health and more than 400 health care and emergency medical professionals developed the state’s TCD system to help first responders identify which hospitals are equipped to treat time-critical stroke patients.
The system sets up four levels, with Level I providing the highest level of specialized care for the most complex stroke cases. Level II will provide specialized care to high volumes of patients and draws from a large geographic area. Level III centers will provide regional access to the TCD system and will refer patients to a higher level of specialized care, if needed, and Level IV centers will provide TCD access in rural area, with patients stabilized and transfered to a higher level of care.
Wright Memorial Hospital has been designated as a Level III Center as is Saint Luke’s North Hospital and Hedrick Medical Center. Saint Luke’s East Hospital is a Level II center and the Marion Bloch Neuroscience Institute at the main hospital in Kansas City has been awarded Level I. The Level I designation comes months after the Joint Commission awarded the institute with Comprehensive Stroke Center designation, the highest stoke center designation in the nation.
“This is a responsible move by the state of Missouri to ensure stroke patients receive the highest level of care in the shortest amount of time, allowing the best possible of recovery and favorable long-term outcomes,” said Dr. Karin Olds, medical director of the stroke program at the SLMBNI. “For all Saint Luke’s hospitals in Missouri to achieve TCD stroke center designation validates our core mission to provide the highest level of neurological care to patients.”
The new state law and guidelines went into effect this week for emergency medical providers. Hospitals in Missouri voluntarily under went a review and designation to be considered as TCD centers for stroke.
Similar time-critical designations for STEMI and trauma will be forthcoming in 2016 and 2017.