In August 2020, UC Health launched the region’s first and only Mobile Stroke Unit, bringing our advanced stroke care directly to those who need it most.
A Mobile Stroke Unit is an ambulance specially designed to evaluate and treat patients with a possible stroke. The unit combines an emergency department (ED) and an ambulance to provide hospital-level care at the scene of the emergency.
Our goal is to shorten the time between the onset of stroke-like symptoms and the delivery of clot-busting medication. Millions of brain cells die every minute that stroke treatment is delayed, and research shows that mobile stroke units can provide treatment 20 to 30 minutes faster than in an emergency department,
When a possible stroke is reported to 911, the UC Health Mobile Stroke Unit can be dispatched right alongside the local EMS department. A highly-trained team of four – a UC Health Air Care & Mobile Care paramedic, EMT and a critical care registered nurse, and a UC Health CT technician – staff the unit, and a Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Stroke Team physician will respond via telemedicine.
This team can quickly assess the patient and provide treatment if necessary. The UC Health Mobile Stroke Unit is equipped with advanced diagnostic technology, including a mobile CT scanner and the clot-busting medication tPA (tissue plasminogen activator). tPA is the only FDA-approved medical treatment for ischemic or thrombotic stroke, and it was developed by the experts at UC Health’s Comprehensive Stroke Center, part of the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute.
The UC Health Mobile Stroke Unit is the latest example of how UC Health continues to innovate in the delivery of stroke care and emergency medicine, with the goal of saving and improving lives,
Currently, the average stroke patient in Greater Cincinnati does not receive clot- busting medication until about 45 or 60 minutes after arriving at a hospital, where a CT scan and other pre-treatment assessments are first performed. By bringing the advanced skills of the emergency department and the stroke team directly to the patient, the experts at UC Health hope to reduce that time significantly and improve patients’ chances for a full recovery.
The UC Health Mobile Stroke Unit is the first of its kind in Southwest Ohio and is a tremendous resource for our community. We are able to bring the emergency department to the curbside in order to diagnose and treat stroke as quickly and safely as possible,
"We look forward to working side-by-side with our 15 partner fire departments to provide excellent acute stroke care." Dr. Richards said.
UC Health’s Mobile Stroke Unit is a partnership between the Department of Emergency Medicine, UC Health Air Care & Mobile Care and the UC Comprehensive Stroke Center. The center pioneered tPA as well as the F.A.S.T. method for diagnosing stroke, and it serve as the national coordinating center for the National Institutes of Health “StrokeNet” program to advance stroke research.
While the Mobile Stroke Unit is provided by UC Health, patients will be transported to the most appropriate hospital, which may or may not be a UC Health hospital.
UC Health is the 21st healthcare system in the U.S. to provide a Mobile Stroke Unit, and its apparatus is the 23rd such unit in the nation.