January 12, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) will open a Comprehensive Stroke Unit that will centralize stroke care within one unit of UAB Hospital. An opening ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. on Tues., Jan. 13 at the unit in the Spain-Wallace Building.
Critically ill stroke patients will stay in the same room, with the same care team, from admission to discharge, avoiding the need to transfer from one unit to another as their condition improves. This continuum of care helps establish better communication with patients and family and helps ensure the best possible outcomes through highly trained staff and a dedicated environment devoted to caring for stroke patients.
"We are calling it a 'universal concept stroke unit' and it is one of the first in the world," said Andrei Alexandrov, M.D., director of the UAB Comprehensive Stroke Center. "It is essentially a one-stop unit with highly specialized interdisciplinary practitioners able to provide state of the science, evidence-based care and conduct cutting edge clinical research all aimed at enhancing stroke patient/family outcomes and reducing the incidence of stroke and disability worldwide."
Nursing and therapy staff on the unit have been specially trained in providing appropriate stroke care at all levels of the acute care continuum, including emergency and critical care, general care and preventative care.
A particular emphasis of the UAB Comprehensive Stroke Unit is any-hour access to acute reperfusion therapies such as the clot busting medication TPA and interventional catheter-based procedures such as thrombectomy, aspiration and stenting. A stroke team of multi-disciplinary neuro-intervention specialists will use the unit as a dedicated base to provide these therapies.
The unit also features a unique patient-family centered care philosophy that includes flexible, individualized visitation and engagement with the patient's family in significant education related to stroke warning signs, treatment, stroke risk factor modification, recovery and prevention.