JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — They’re the first health group in Florida to launch a mobile stroke unit.
UF Health is taking their stroke services to the streets of Jacksonville all to reduce the long-lasting disabilities that come with stroke patients after they are discharged from the hospital.
"People should know that stroke is treatable and it's beatable," UF Health Mobile Stroke Program Director Nicole Davis told First Coast News. "It's not the eighties anymore. We can actually treat you and get you back home as quickly as possible."
With a mobile stroke treatment unit, UF Health is able to bring the hospital to the patient and treat them right on scene, which then in turn helps them have less disability.
“When individuals are able to get treated within that first golden hour, it has been shown that the length of stay within the hospital decreases in addition to the chances of mortality, morbidity and disability also astronomically decreases... meaning that they are able to return to their normal lives previous to stroke,” said Captain David Lykens, EMS Operations with Alachua County Fire Rescue.
Health experts say stroke patients lose almost two million brain cells every minute, which adds to how crucial it is for patients to receive care within the first 60 minutes of experiencing symptoms, or what is referred to as a patient’s golden hour. Still, it can be difficult to even diagnose someone who’s having a stroke.
“One of the most difficult things is speech difficulty because there are instances having difficulties with communication,” Lykens said.
So, what makes mobile stroke units different from your typical ambulance? It may look like your typical ambulance on the outside, but on the inside, units feature technology that’s typically in a patient's room.
UF Health partnered with the Alachua County Fire and Rescue Department, spending time designing the back of the vehicle with what you would see in the stroke unit of a hospital.
"We have a CT scanner, so we can scan your brain right on scene and diagnose your stroke," Davis said. "We have medications to treat stroke. So, we have the clot-busting medicine for the ischemic stroke patient or reversal medicine for hemorrhagic stroke or bleeding in the brain. And then we have specialty staff."
A mobile stroke unit is equipped with four specialized health experts compared to a regular ambulance which typically only has two.
"We have a registered nurse that's been trained in stroke care, a CT technologist, a paramedic and an EMT," Davis said. "So, four staff members are on the truck at all times and then we have telemedicine equipment that will hook you up with our vascular neurologist."
The mobile stroke unit fleet that made its debut in Gainesville last year was designed to help treat stroke patients faster than ever before. Only 20 health groups around the country have introduced this concept, eliminating time constraints EMTs face now when transporting a stroke patient.
“There's traffic that we have to worry about," Lykens said. "We may be going into severe weather that we're having to worry about. And then the actual process of the hospital getting them a CT scan, getting them that medication and actually getting the assessment at the hospital as well. With the mobile stroke treatment unit, it automatically gets dispatched out to every single stroke call within the county, which means that the hospital on wheels essentially gets dispatched out there."
UF Health practitioners say the mortality rate and level of disability decreases if a patient receives care within the first 60 minutes of experiencing symptoms, as they've seen much success already with the mobile stroke unit in Alachua County over the past year.
“We were dispatched to 980 calls. We admitted over 450 patients. We provided over 100 acute critical interventions and we had requests from surrounding rural counties,” Davis said.
The biggest success UF Health has seen is getting patients care during the golden hour.
“We're able to provide those individuals with life-saving care instead of 1.4% within that golden hour, 18% within that golden hour,” Captain Lykens said.
Health officials say the mobile stroke unit will create a better outcome for patients when they are well enough to go home after their hospital stay. UF Health will start rolling out vehicles in Jacksonville and The Villages in 2025.