GOUVERNEUR -- Gouverneur Hospital hosted representatives from the SUNY’s Upstate Medical University Hospital’s Comprehensive Stroke Center Jan. 6 for an educational program featuring Gouverneur Hospital’s newly implemented Telestroke program.

The program educated the attendees on rapid assessment of patients presenting with neurological changes, as well as the positive impact on outcomes from early diagnosis and treatment.

During the Telestroke portion, two Upstate University neurologists, Dr. Gene Latorre and Dr. Hesmah Masoud, demonstrated the system’s distance capabilities. Dr. Latorre is the Chief of the Neurovascular Division at Upstate Medical University as well as the Director of the Upstate Comprehensive Stroke Program, while Dr. Masoud is a Neuro-Interventionalist within the Stroke Program.

Center staff led the educational program, attended by over 32 St. Lawrence County EMS providers. Stroke Program Outreach Coordinator Josh Onyan, RN, and Stroke Program Manager Jennifer Schleier, RN, worked with Mark Deavers, Gouverneur Rescue Squad director, to arrange the presentation held in the GH Community Room.

“The mission and project objectives of the Telestroke Network are to increase access to stroke care in rural communities throughout the Central New York Region, closing the gap between expert medical care and location of patients,” said Dr. Latorre.

The Telestroke program uses the technology of telemedicine to offer the benefit of expert neurological consult immediately to identified patients in the Gouverneur Hospital Emergency Department.

“On average, one American dies from a stroke every 4 minutes,” said Nurse Onyan. “A drug carried by hospitals, tPA, is the only FDA-approved medication used to treat sudden stroke,” he said. “Because this drug must be administered within hours of the last time a patient was known to be well, the EMS provider role is vital to the care of these patients.”

Allowing the benefit of earlier diagnosis and expert treatment to the community is also part of the mission of Gouverneur Hospital, according to Hospital officials. Emergency Department Nurse Manager Jay Moore, also an EMS provider, noted he is proud of the coordinated efforts of the ED Staff, SUNY Stroke Program Team and EMS in ensuring this treatment option is readily available to the community.

“Accurate assessment and timely treatment allow for earlier, more beneficial treatment options in stroke patients,” said Moore. “The ability to reduce, and possibly eliminate, major life neurological damage is a strong motivator to continue to collaborate with all healthcare providers in bringing state-of-the-art, evidence-based care to our community,” Moore said.