Memphis Mobile Stroke Unit Saves Lives

A year after a mobile stroke unit hit the streets of Memphis, officials say it is saving lives by cutting the time it takes to treat stroke patients. The University of Tennessee Health Science Center began using the 14-ton ambulance last year as part of a three-year controlled study. The unit has a CT scanner that can X-ray images of the brain, and is equipped to provide early fluids to stroke patients and dye blood vessels to determine the type of stroke the patient has had. "The emergency room on average takes 40 to 50 minutes to do the things we do in 13 to 14 minutes," said Dr.Andrei Alexandrov, UTHSC neurology professor, chairman of the neurology department and medical director of the stroke unit team. "From the very first day it was very clear that this was winning technology." To date, the mobile stroke unit has transported 171 patients and has administered 35 treatments of alteplase, or tPA, a clot-busting medicine. "The unit that we have is so sophisticated that for the short duration of the patient's experience on the unit, it is the equivalent of an emergency room in a primary stroke center," said Alexandrov. Launched last April, the mobile stroke unit is in use 12 hours a day for seven days, every other week. "On the weeks that we're not running the unit, we monitor stroke calls in the city," said Joseph Rike, director of the mobile stroke unit. If there were patients that would have been treated by the stroke unit, the mobi...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: News Mobile Integrated Healthcare Source Type: news