Providence Health & Services Alaska in Anchorage is installing Augusta, Ga.-based Reach Call’s Web-based services in all five of its facilities within Alaska.
The Reach telestroke service is designed to enable neurologists to deliver urgent, specialized stroke consultations to physicians and nurses caring for acute stroke patients in rural emergency departments near a stroke specialty center known as a hub, the company says. According to the company, these rural sites frequently do not have neurologists or sufficient coverage to create a stroke team capable of 24-7 rapid evaluation of patients for an intravenous drug called tissue plasminogen activator (TPA). TPA can dissolve clots and reverse the symptoms if given within three hours after stroke symptoms begin.
