AR SAVES-Stroke Assistance through Virtual Emergency Support
AR SAVES presents an innovative solution to a complex, statewide problem. This initiative leans upon the expertise of Arkansas’ vascular neurologists, innovative telemedicine systems, and ground-breaking medications to treat Arkansas’ stroke patients.
This program links emergency room doctors at participating hospitals to specially trained vascular neurologists via live, two-way video, available 24-hours a day. Led by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Center for Distance Health, the program helps ensure treatment of stroke patients.
Hospitals that are selected to participate in the AR SAVES Program are equipped with telemedicine technology, training for personnel, support for dedicated tele-stroke coordinator and ongoing education.
Currently, many of Arkansas’ rural hospitals without the support of a neurologist often forgo administration of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), as they lack the staff resources to accurately identify and manage tPA candidates. Further, the window of time needed to affectively administer tPA is often lost when stroke patients are transported to a better-equipped, remote hospital. As such, Arkansas’ stroke patients are missing out on a quality-of-life-saving drug that significantly improves the chances of recovery while reducing permanent, stroke-related disability and, quite possibly, mortality. AR SAVES has implemented a stroke management system specifically targeting these shortcomings by increasing access to subspecialty expertise through telemedicine technology, thereby engineering a coordinated assessment and care-based plan for Arkansas’ stroke patients.
UAMS Telemedicine Stroke Program Saves Mena Woman While suffering a major stroke at her home near Mena, Iva Sikes assumed the worst, not knowing that a UAMS-led telemedicine program would provide her a complete recovery.
Sikes, who lives alone four miles outside of Mena, was about to tend her flower garden June 1 when the left side of her body went numb, causing her to fall. Full Story
