We're a comprehensive stroke center.
And that's a big deal.

Dr. Larry Goldstein discusses the criteria for being designated a Comprehensive Stroke Center and why not all centers are necessarily equal (3:05).

At UK HealthCare, we’ve earned Comprehensive Stroke Center status so that we can not just save lives affected by stroke, but potentially restore those lives to what they were before.

The Joint Commission on Hospitals, in cooperation with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, created the Comprehensive Stroke Center designation and set a high bar for achieving it.

To earn the designation, a stroke center must:

• Have the resources, staff and training to provide state-of-the-art stroke care to all stroke patients.
• Have dedicated neuro-intensive care unit beds for complex stroke patients available 24/7.
• Use advanced imaging capabilities.
• Meet the minimum requirements for providing care to patients with a diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage; performing endovascular coiling or surgical clipping procedures for aneurysm; and administering IV tPA.
• Coordinate post-hospital care for patients.
• Use a peer-review process to evaluate and monitor the care provided to patients with ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke.
• Participate in stroke research.
• Core stroke team members receive at least eight hours of annual stroke education, and other disciplines have education requirements.
• Educate 80 percent of emergency department practitioners on acute stroke protocols.
• Protocols address circumstances for not receiving transferred patients for neurosurgical and cerebrovascular surgery.
• Licensed independent practitioners and staff members prepare and present two or more education activities to internal staff and/or individuals external to the CSC.
• Collect, analyze and use standardized performance measure data from the eight stroke (STK) measures and eight comprehensive stroke (CSTK) measures to continually improve treatment plans.

We’ve gone the distance to make sure the people of Kentucky have the highest quality stroke care possible. Because we’re on a mission.

*The latest year for which statistics are available.