Comprehensive Stroke Treatment

Dina Miller, FNP-BC

Fort Sanders Regional is the region’s only comprehensive stroke and rehabilitation center. But all the accolades in the world can’t compare to the importance of the actual treatment a stroke patient receives when he or she arrives in need of care.

Neurology nurse practitioner Dina Miller, FNP-BC, says Fort Sanders Regional’s extraordinary level of care starts at the door. EMS and triage nurses are trained to recognize the symptoms of a stroke – so as soon as patients arrive, the emergency room is ready.

Arthur Moore, MD

“The emergency department physician will meet them within five minutes from the time that patient comes through the door,” Miller says. “We have a report on the CT scan within 25 minutes.”

Miller serves as a first responder, helping in the assessment of patients and connecting with hospital neurologists. When the neurologist arrives in the emergency room, all the groundwork has already been laid to clear the way for treatment.

Among the advanced treatments are the clot buster known as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), and thrombectomy/embolectomy, an interventional radiology procedure in which a clot can be physically removed from the brain.

“We’ve been doing that at Fort Sanders Regional for over 10 years,” says Arthur Moore, MD, medical director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at Fort Sanders.

Dr. Moore explains that expertise and experience combine to ensure excellent treatment and excellent odds for recovery.

“At Fort Sanders Regional, we take care of more stroke patients with tPA and with embolectomy than any other center in the Knoxville area,” Dr. Moore says. “We see three strokes a day, where some hospitals may only see one a week. Dealing with stroke is one of our main specialties here.”

The Comprehensive Stroke Center at Fort Sanders Regional also offers a unique multidisciplinary approach to treating stroke patients. That includes the award-winning Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center, the area’s only high-level rehabilitation for stroke, so patients don’t have to be sent somewhere else for rehab when they’re released from the hospital.

“Stroke patients have access to internal medicine, neurology, speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, dietitians and nutritionists, interventional radiology, cardiology, vascular surgery – basically this is a one-stop shop for everything you could need when you have a stroke,” Dr. Moore says. “And we’re one of only two centers in our area with the Joint Commission’s Comprehensive Stroke Center designation, which means we have the highest level of stroke care.”

For information about the Comprehensive Stroke Center at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, visit http://covenanthealth.com/stroke.

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