UF Health unveils Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit, aims to bring care to stroke victims
Nora O'NeillUF Health unveiled the state's first Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the University of Florida on Monday.
The unit is equipped to bring stroke treatments to the victim, allowing medical professionals to respond more quickly in life-threatening situations.
UF Health President David R. Nelson said that the mobile unit and others to come could help treat and save many of the 40,000 stroke victims UF Health sees.
"The university's aspiration was really to help create the healthiest generation. Every day our UF Health physicians and researchers offer leading edge treatments that are transforming patient care, and hopefully revolutionizing how medicine is practiced,” he said. “I'm just really grateful to be a small part of what I think is the most exciting initiative UF Health has ever launched.”
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The mobile unit is equipped with a CT scanner, clot-busting drugs and other medications to help treat stroke. It will be staffed with a stroke-trained nurse, a CT technician, a paramedic, an EMT driver and a remote stroke neurologist.
Traci D’Auguste, the chief operating officer of UF Health Shands, emphasized the importance of saving time when treating stroke victims.
“By deploying these resources directly to the patient out in the field, the team can begin treatment while in transit to the nearest stroke center. This saves critical minutes to reduce long-term disability from the stroke,” she said.
The unit will be staffed 12 hours each day and will provide service within a 30-mile radius, D’Auguste said. UF Health is planning to launch similar vehicles over the course of the next year.
Alachua County Fire Rescue Chief Harold Theus spoke at the ceremony, thanking UF Health for its partnership and emphasizing Alachua County’s EMS services which he calls some of the best in the nation. Alachua County is one of the 190 EMS agencies accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services in the United States, he said.
“This unit will save lives,” Theus said. “That's what we are most excited about.”