On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.
At Riverside, we have a team of dedicated professionals that work together across our entire system to ensure that patients have the very best in stroke care. From a multi-specialty team of doctors that includes neurointerventionalists, neurologists and neurosurgeons, to advanced care practitioners, nurses, therapists and social workers – our entire team is ready to quickly identify, diagnose, and treat stroke across the region.
Our Stroke Center at Riverside Regional Medical Center is Southeastern Virginia’s only DNV certified Comprehensive Stroke Center, offering an advanced level of care for the most complex stroke cases. This resource represents the very latest in the timely diagnosis and treatment of stroke, with advanced imaging capabilities, a dedicated neuro ICU, a team of specialists with advanced training and a research arm to help shape the future of stroke care standards. This designation is earned and evaluated annually. It recognizes hospitals that have demonstrated the highest quality of care and places RRMC among the top five percent of hospitals in the country.
RRMC has also been awarded the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate stroke treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.
Riverside also has three certified primary stroke centers in the region: Riverside Doctors' Hospital Williamsburg, Riverside Walter Reed Hospital, and Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital. These hospitals have a dedicated stroke program with specially trained medical professionals, individualized care plans for patients, and a strict adherence to the latest evidence-based care.
The RAPID neuroimaging platform 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 can be saved while delivering reconstructed images to physicians in minutes.
This new technology helps physicians 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.
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.
Riverside’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.
Riverside knows that quality stroke care should begin before a patient enters the Emergency Room. That’s why they have partnered with local EMS providers for ongoing training, education, and strategies to identify stroke from the field. Local EMS can begin administering evidenced-based, appropriate treatments as soon as possible. They also know to take patients to certified stroke centers, so patients can get the best and most appropriate care.