DELAND, FLORIDA, May 7, 2007¬? Florida Hospital DeLand announces its achievement as West Volusia’s first Certified Primary Stroke Center. According to the American Stroke Association, hospitals are evaluated and receive a certification decision based on an assessment of:
1. Compliance with consensus-based standards.
2. Effective use of primary stroke center recommendations and clinical practice guidelines to manage and optimize care.
3. Performance measurement and improvement activities.
Florida Hospital DeLand has a designated stroke team to provide suspected stroke patients with expert evaluation, rapid diagnosis and treatment when appropriate.
 
 Florida Hospital DeLand’s Director of Critical Care, Patricia Scott said, “To obtain the Primary Stroke Certification the Emergency, Intensive Care, Imaging, Cardiopulmonary, Laboratory, and Rehab Services teams along with Neurologists and Emergency Physicians, all completed the required education focusing on the care of stroke patients. In addition, the hospital follows proven clinical care pathways for the identification and treatment of stroke.” 
 
Florida Hospital DeLand President and CEO Daryl Tol added, “We are pleased to be the first hospital on the west side of the county to obtain this certification so that suspected stroke victims can receive care as quickly as possible.”

According to the American Stroke Association, time is of the essence as noted by its current educational campaign: “Time lost is brain lost.” This is why recognizing the warning signs of stroke and getting to a hospital as quickly as possible are imperative, yet 83 percent of adults over 50 cannot name one stroke symptom. Sudden, distinctive signs of stroke are:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

According to the Director of Critical Care, Patricia Scott, the Florida Hospital DeLand team is ready to respond to stroke 24 hours a day. “When a stroke is identified in the triage area, the pre-hospital area, or the inpatient or public areas of the hospital, a call is made to the operator to page a “stroke alert,” said Scott. “All areas of the stroke team ready for the patient to receive an evaluation designed to identify and prepare to treat stroke.” 

 About Stroke:

• Stroke is the leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the U.S.

• There are two types of strokes:
? The first type is when a blood vessel in the brain is blocked by a clot, which is an ischemic stroke
? The second type is when a blood vessel in the brain bleeds into the brain.
 
• Stroke attacks someone in the United States every 45 seconds and claims a life every three minutes. 
 
• Approximately 700,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke each year.  

• May is National Stroke Awareness Month

For more information or interviews with Patricia Scott, contact Jennifer Gammage at 386-943-4704 or jennifer.gammage@fhdeland.org.

Florida Hospital DeLand, located at 701 West Plymouth Avenue in DeLand, was established in 1962 and is a 156-bed acute-care hospital. The hospital was named to the Solucient Top 100 Performance Improvement Leaders list for the second consecutive year. The honor recognizes hospitals and their management teams for leading facilities to achieve the fastest rate of consistent annual organizational improvement among all U.S. hospitals. Florida Hospital DeLand is a member of the Adventist Health System, the largest Protestant not-for-profit hospital system in the nation.  For more information about Florida Hospital DeLand visit www.fhdeland.org.