The Cole County Ambulance Service is no longer transporting patients with stroke symptoms to St. Mary's Hospital after the hospital voluntarily suspended its stroke center certification.
Ambulance Chief Matt Lindewirth told the Cole County Commission on Tuesday the ambulance service was notified of the suspension by the hospital Friday. Lindewirth said he wanted to let the commission know because he expects the number of transfers the service will be doing will increase in the immediate future.
"Due to inconsistent neurology coverage following the departure of our neurologist last fall, we have temporarily paused our national Primary Stroke Center certification, which became effective on Monday," St. Mary's spokesman Brian Westrich said. "However, we anticipate this is a temporary situation as we continue working to secure appropriate neurology coverage moving forward."
In the meantime, Westrich said, they will continue to have telestroke or remote medical coverage in the St. Mary's emergency department through their partnership with SSM Health St. Clare Hospital-Fenton.
"We are prepared to assess, stabilize and transfer stroke patients to other health facilities, as appropriate, to ensure they receive the best care possible," Westrich said.
Lindewirth said they will now transport stroke patients to Capital Region Medical Center along with University of Missouri Hospital and Boone Hospital, both in Columbia. He said they are working to let other area ambulance services know what has happened and how they need to divert stroke patients from St. Mary's.
"If a stroke patient is cognitive enough and wants to go to St. Mary's, we will have them sign a waiver and take them, but we will encourage them to go to other facilities with higher stroke care levels," Lindewirth said.
There are four designations for stroke centers in Missouri.
St. Mary's got its Level 2 stroke center certification from the state health department in May. Capital Region received the same designation in March.
The designation means a hospital can provide a high level of care to a great number of patients experiencing trauma, stroke and heart attacks in which one of the heart's major arteries is blocked.
At Level 2, hospitals can administer treatments, such as tissue plasminogen activator, and the patient can stay at the facility instead of being transferred to a higher skilled facility. The activator, the only FDA-approved treatment for specific strokes, is given intravenously. It must be given within the first 4.5 hours of the beginning of the stroke and dissolves the clot that's preventing blood flow to parts of the brain.
University and Boone are Level 1 centers because they have neurosurgeons on staff 24 hours a day who could operate and take out clots, if needed.