FEATURED PROGRAM Good Samaritan Hospital: Neurocritical Care and Stroke Excellence in the Silicon Valley By Audrey Paulson, DNP and Harmeet Sachdev, MD Good Samaritan Hospital celebrated its 50- directors that are not at the bedside but have an enormous impact year anniversary of serving the Silicon Valley on bedside care. community in May. As a community hospital, we are a proud facility nestled next to the More importantly, this team includes the numerous therapists, Santa Cruz Mountains and the Santa Clara CT and MRI and lab techs, transporters, pharmacists and Valley in sunny California and have many housekeepers that are a part of this wonderful staff here at Good accomplishments that support this pride. One Samaritan Hospital. It is the nurses who are at the bedside caring such accomplishment is our Comprehensive for the patients and their families during this time of need who are Stroke Center certification awarded by the our greatest asset, providing hands-on care. Our stroke patients Audrey Paulson, Joint Commission recognizing our stroke get state-of-the-art care delivered in their community, near their DNP program. homes and families, with the goal being to discharge to our acute rehab facility or their home. In 1996, Good Samaritan Hospital became the first community hospital to give recombinant Having once thought stroke was a sentence one had to serve, as tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) in the state the nurse practitioner for the comprehensive stroke center, I see of California. This 49-year old gentleman the great accomplishments that we have achieved in the arena presented with a dense right hemiplegia and of stroke care. The commitment by the hospital administration the drug had just been approved. During along with Dr. Sachdev’s passion for the care of the patients has that time, Dr. Sachdev personally went to not diminished over the years. While our academic peers often individuals at the EMS system to educate them provide the benchmark that this community hospital must reach that a stroke was as urgent a matter as a heart to stay in league with the real players, Good Samaritan Hospital Harmeet Sachdev, attack and that they needed to change the has managed not only to play the game, but at times leads the MD transport method to a code three and turn on pack with the other well respected stroke centers. the sirens and lights for stroke patients. The future of stroke care currently looks Already, it was known that educating the public would be the key bright and promising. At Good Samaritan to improving the lives of those who had suffered a stroke. This Hospital, we plan on being part of that future. education also occurred in the hospital as the medical surgical We are adding an additional bi-plane suite, intensive care unit (MSICU) nurses at Good Samaritan, including implementing RAPID software for faster image myself, were trained to perform the NIHSS with an on-site class processing and are dedicated to continue being and videos provided by the NIH for teaching that class. As a nurse a part of the fascinating advances occurring in in the MSICU, I had no desire to become a stroke nurse. In the the field of stroke care. past, my experience in acute rehab was that having a stroke meant “I am sorry, you have had a stroke” and the patient dealt with it. We are developing criteria for our EMS system to implement a two-tiered system that delivers Times have changed. In 2004, Good Samaritan Hospital was one complex stroke patients to comprehensive of the first five hospitals in the nation to receive Primary Stroke stroke centers as a county-wide process and Center certification. At that time, our processes were already well will continue to provide the best possible care ingrained with a stroke coordinator, data collectors, and a research for our patients. We do this by putting our staff. In 2004, Dr. Reza Malek followed by Dr. Arash Padidar patients first and knowing that, by doing that, joined our team and started providing Neuro Interventional everything else will work itself out. Radiology treatments for our patients. We immediately recognized that this would change stroke care as we know it, similar to the The Featured Program impact that rtPA had with its introduction. column seeks to enrich the outlook of NCS members We opened our dedicated 20-bed Neuro ICU in April 2012 and by highlighting programs we were the first to be surveyed for Comprehensive Stroke Center that are undertaking certification. We have been active with research over the years and innovative approaches to our nurses have spoken at national conferences (AANN, 2014) the practice of neurocritical and have had multiple poster presentations for conferences both care. If you are interested nationally and internationally including the NCS (Neurocritical in contributing an article, Care Helps Improve Outcomes in the Complex Stroke Patient, please contact me at Denver 2012) and multiple poster presentations at the rgeocad1@jhmi.edu. In this issue, we feature the International Stroke Conference. advances in stroke care within a community hospital program at Good Samaritan Hospital Our stroke team has grown and it is truly a team effort that has in San Jose, CA. allowed us to be able to compete with the academic facilities and provide current up-to-date treatments enabling our patients to - Romergryko Geocadin, MD, Section Editor have excellent outcomes. This team consists of many specialized physicians: neurosurgeons, neurologists, neurointensivists and others, overseeing the care along with hospital administrators and 28
224000_NCS_June Currents_2-eMag
To see the actual publication please follow the link above