MERCER COUNTY, WV (WOAY) – Officially accredited as a primary stroke center, this milestone underscores WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital’s commitment to fast, high-quality stroke care.
“This is very important,” Neurologist/Stroke Program Medical Director Dr. Stephen Rohrbough said, adding that there’s low recognition and delayed care of stroke in rural areas.
According to Rohrbough, southern West Virginia’s stroke risk factors are all present.
“Including high blood pressure, diabetes, and tobacco use. Stroke has been a real issue here historically,” said the neurologist.
With WVU PCH being accredited as a primary stroke center, it had to undergo a certification process with an outside entity that looked at all of its policies and procedures.
“The DNV, an outside entity come in with no bias. We don’t tell them, they tell us how well we’re doing. And if we meet all the requirements, we get this certification. So it is a big deal, and it’s a big deal for my team and what they go through,” President/CEO Karen Bowling said.
This means more rapid and better recognition of stroke, based on the education of PCH’s providers and the community.
“Which will reduce disability, and we can actually help with prevention. When we talk about stroke care, we talk about primary prevention and secondary prevention,” said Rohrbough. “Secondary prevention is after you’ve had the stroke. But primary prevention is helping to manage all of those stroke risk factors.”
You want to ensure that when you’re going to the emergency room for something like a stroke, you’re going to get the best treatment possible.
“Most people know that in our particular service area, we have a lot of challenges with heart disease, vascular disease, strokes, and heart attacks,” Bowling said. “So we wanted our community to feel secure that if they’re needing that type of service, if they think they might be having a stroke, when they come in here stroke alert, we’re on it.”
