Time is critical when responding to a potential stroke victim. Thanks to an advanced mobile unit, a Queens hospital can now treat stroke victims quickly and efficiently.
With help from Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the FDNY, NewYork-Presbyterian is expanding its Mobile Stroke Treatment Units (MSTU) to help patients suffering a stroke in Queens.
The MTSU is an advanced vehicle that can provide immediate, specialized care to patients who may be experiencing a stroke. The New York City 911 System started to deploy the MTSU through the FDNY to community surrounding NewYork-Presbyterian/Queens in Flushing on April 30.
Each MSTU is staffed by a highly specialized team of two NYP paramedics, a computed tomography (CT) technologist and a registered nurse. The staff can contact a neurologist remotely through a video conference. The MSTU allows the neurologist to view the patient and provide an assessment and recommendations for care.
The MTSU also contains equipment and medications specific to diagnosing and treating strokes and a portable CT scanner which will help paramedics instantly detect if the patient is having a stroke.
“Response time is a critical factor in stroke recovery and the Mobile Stroke Treatment Units now have the capacity to help even more patients,” said Dr. Matthew E. Fink, who oversees the MSTU program and is neurologist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and chairman of the Department of Neurology and the Louis and Gertrude Feil Professor in Clinical Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine. “We are bringing the emergency room directly to a patient suffering a stroke. This is a game changer in advanced stroke care.”
A donation from W.P. Carey Foundation made NewYork-Presbyterian the first health system in the country to operate three of these units in Brooklyn and Queens.
“We are extremely grateful to our donors for their support in helping us provide life-saving stroke treatment with significantly reduced treatment times to the communities of Queens and Brooklyn,” said Dr. Steven J. Corwin, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian. “NewYork-Presbyterian is proud to be a leader in advanced stroke care by becoming the first to operate three Mobile Stroke Treatment Units.”
To learn more about the MSTU, visit nyp.org/neuro/services/stroke/
