Stroke Care

Summa's Emergency Stroke Team, is an interdisciplinary team of highly skilled professionals who focus exclusively on stroke patients. When a stroke patient arrives in the emergency room at either Akron City or St. Thomas Hospital, our interdisciplinary team goes to work immediately. Within 60 minutes, they diagnose the patient's condition, provide immediate, critical care and set into motion a coordinated treatment plan to maximize recovery. Summa's emergency department offers 24-hour neuro/radiological imaging and intervention, as well as 24-hour neurosurgical availablity. These services, in conjunction with a specially trained staff, are also available to provide emergent assessment and intervention to inhospital stroke patients.

The team includes: an emergency room physician; a neurologist (doctor with special training in diseases of the brain and nervous system); a radiologist; a clinical nurse specialist trained in geriatrics and neurology; nurses with extensive training in the management of stroke patients; physical, occupational and speech therapists; a dietitian; a social worker; a pharmacist; a patient care coordinator; the medical director of the stroke unit; and emergency medical services, who play an integral role by recognizing the signs and symptoms of a brain attack and working to get stroke patients to the emergency department in a timely manner.