DNV Re-accredits RRMC as the Only Comprehensive Stroke Center in Southeastern Virginia.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Riverside Regional Medical Center has recently been re-accredited as a comprehensive stroke center, reflecting the highest level of competence for treatment of serious stroke events. Riverside Regional Medical Center is currently the only hospital in Southeastern Virginia to maintain comprehensive stroke certification, and among five percent of hospitals nationally.
“With stroke care, you must have the best clinicians and resources, but also the ability to act quickly with extreme efficiency because of the time-critical nature of these events,” said Dr. Pankajavalli Ramakrishnan, a neurointerventional specialist at Riverside. “This recertification validates all the effort our team consistently puts into this program in ensuring the health and safety of our patients.”
As a high volume stroke center treating hundreds of stroke cases annually, the experts at RRMC treat ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. In addition, the team treats brain aneurysms, including placement of the pipeline device; AVMs (a tangle of blood vessels in the brain); dural AV fistula (abnormal connections between an artery and a vein); and carotid artery stenting, among others.
The DNV GL - Healthcare Comprehensive Stroke Center Certification is based on standards set forth by the American Stroke Association (ASA) and the Brain Attack Coalition and affirms that RRMC addresses the full spectrum of stroke care – diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and education – and establishes clear metrics to evaluate outcomes.
“Our team of experts is dedicated to providing the best and most advanced therapies to treat stroke 24/7, with the goal of restoring cognitive and physical function,” adds Dr. Ramakrishnan. “We use some of the most advanced technologies in identifying stroke patients who might benefit from thrombectomy even when they present up to 24 hours after the onset of symptoms.”
Comprehensive Stroke Center Certification recognizes hospitals that have significant resources in maintaining a highly trained staff and an advanced infrastructure to provide state-of-the-art complex stroke care. Centers that receive the designation are required to have advanced imaging capabilities, provide neuro-critical care 24 hours a day/seven days per week, conduct clinical research, care for patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage, and peRiverside Foundationorm endovascular coiling or surgical clipping procedures for aneurysm.
According to the ASA, stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of serious, long-term disability. In Virginia, stroke is actually the fourth leading cause of death. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
Advanced Technology to Diagnose and Treat Stroke
RRMC has the RAPID neuroimaging platform, which creates high-quality images from a variety of imaging modalities, including CT scans and MRI studies, and color codes the images highlighting areas of the brain that could potentially be saved while delivering reconstructed images to physicians in minutes.
This new technology helps physicians to quickly determine which patients are good candidates for mechanical thrombectomy, which is a procedure to surgically remove a blot clot from the brain. For stroke patients it means the narrow window for intervention potentially quadruples, to 24 hours from the onset of symptoms.
“In stroke cases, when time equals brain function, this is an outstanding advance that will help us extend and even save lives,” says Dr. Ramakrishnan.
RRMC’s stroke experts also use a neurointerventional biplane system to help diagnose stroke and other neurological abnormalities and treat them with minimally invasive procedures such as clot removal, aneurysm repair, open carotid artery blockages, and even severe nosebleeds. This dedicated equipment uses special instruments threaded inside the blood vessels of the brain and neck.
For more information about Riverside's network of stroke care, visit www.riversidestroke.com.