FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 23,
2005
CONTACT:
Bureau
of Emergency Medical Services to promote Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke
Scale
SALT LAKE CITY, May 23, 2005 – During the past legislative session Utah legislators passed Senate Joint Resolution 14 promoting Stroke Awareness “Time Lost = Brain Loss” and urging public and private entities to establish a stroke care system in the state. This involves an interaction among the public, EMS programs and hospital emergency departments.
Time is critical when someone suffers a
stroke. Today, only about five percent of stroke patients arrive at the hospital
in time to be treated with a clot-busting drug that can help reduce permanent
brain damage and long-term disability. In Utah, 27 percent of those who suffer a
stroke die before being transported by an ambulance, not including nursing home
deaths, according to the Utah Department of Health.
As part of this effort to promote Stroke
Awareness, the Utah Department of Health (UDOH), Bureau of Emergency Medical
Services (BEMS), has initiated training EMS instructors how to use the
Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Scale (CPSS). This is just one component in
establishing a statewide systems approach to stroke.
“EMS personnel can rapidly assess patients of possible acute stroke using
this assessment tool,” said Donald J. Wood, M.D. BEMS Program Director,
UDOH. “They can then transmit this
new information in their report to the hospital and initiate appropriate
interventions while transporting patients to an appropriate medical facility.”
The CPSS assesses three areas: facial droop, one side of the face does not move at all; arm drift, one arm drifts compared to the other; and speech slurred, inappropriate words or mute. The patient who displays abnormal findings on any one of these three exam points may be experiencing an acute stroke.
“The
brain is an extremely complex organ that controls various body functions,” said
Elaine Skalabrin, M.D., Chair, American Stroke Association, a division of the
American Heart Association. “If a
stroke occurs and blood flow can't reach the region that controls a particular
body function that part of the body won't work as it should.”
The
statewide system approach begins when stroke patients or a bystander recognize
the signs and symptoms of stroke and call the emergency response number, 911,
immediately to initiate help.
Critical time is saved when EMS can notify the emergency department to
begin assembling the necessary personnel to treat an acute stroke patient. EMS
responders and communicators can also play an important role in collecting
information about when stroke symptoms begin. The information gathered by using the
CPSS can be essential to clinical decision making in the acute treatment of
stroke.
“A systems approach can
help implement measures that quickly recognize a stroke. Adopting the Cincinnati
Stroke Scale will give EMS personnel an effective tool to identify stroke in the
field,” said Skalabrin.
Stroke
Facts
· In the
U.S. a stroke occurs, on average, every 45 seconds
· This
year, Americans will pay about approximately $53 billion for stroke-related
medical costs and disability
· Treatment
in the first three hours after stroke symptoms occur is vital
· *Each
year about 4,000 Utahns are hospitalized with a stroke
· *Stroke
kills approximately 900 Utahns a year
· *2003
Utah hospital costs for stroke
o
*$107
million for all stroke diagnoses
o
*$50
million for stroke as a primary diagnoses
For information about the warning signs and risk factors of stroke and the American Stroke Association, visit http://www.americanheart.org/.
###
*Utah Department of
Health