Missouri officials have certified Capital Region Medical Center as a Level 2 Stroke Center.
The certification means the hospital, located at 1125 Madison St. in Jefferson City, provides a high level of care to a great number of trauma, stroke and heart attacks in which one of the heart's major arteries is blocked (ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarctions, called STEMI, according to the Department of Health and Senior Services).
CRMC President Gaspare Calvaruso announced the recognition to staff members during an event for volunteers Wednesday.
Calvaruso said there are four designations for hospitals in Missouri. At the lowest level, hospitals provide access into the health care system, stabilize stroke patients and prepare them for rapid transportation to a center with a higher level of care.
At Level 3, which CRMC had been, hospitals can administer treatments, such as tPA, but still must send patients to an institution with a higher level of care. Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is the only FDA-approved treatment for specific strokes is given intravenously. It must be given within 4.5 hours of the beginning of the stroke and dissolves the clot that's preventing blood flow to parts of the brain.
At Level 2, Calvaruso said, "When that drug is given, we're able to keep patients here."
He said CRMC is the only Level 2 Stroke Center in Jefferson City. Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach also is a Level 2 center.
University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics and Boone Hospital Center, both in Columbia, are Level 1 centers.
That designation, Calvaruso said, indicates those hospitals have neurosurgeons on staff 24 hours a day.