Mount Sinai Queens Opens Expansive, State-of-the-art Thrombectomy-Capable Stroke Center

Mount Sinai Queens celebrated the grand opening of its state-of-the-art Cerebrovascular Stroke Center with a special ceremony and ribbon cutting on June 19. The new, fully thrombectomy-capable Stroke Center is the first of its kind in the United States and was custom-designed to provide the fastest and most efficient treatment for people experiencing the most devastating form of stroke – large vessel occlusion (LVO) strokes. In October 2017, Mount Sinai Queens became the first hospital in the borough to perform thrombectomy procedures on LVO stroke patients by creating and deploying a mobile Mount Sinai Health System neurointerventional stroke team. Prior to that, every Queens resident who needed a thrombectomy had to be transferred out of the borough since there was no thrombectomy-capable center.

Large vessel occlusion strokes occur when there is a blood clot in a major artery in the brain, leaving the patient with severe symptoms and potential deficits. LVOs are often the most deadly form of stroke, partially because the standard clot busting drugs often prove to be ineffective for this type of stroke. Thrombectomy, the standard of care for most LVO strokes, is a procedure that removes the clot and quickly restores blood flow to the brain. During a thrombectomy, a highly specialized neuroendovascular surgeon threads a catheter through an artery in the groin or wrist to the patient’s brain and uses suction and/or a stent to remove the clot. 

“When it comes to stroke care, time is brain. Every passing minute that blood flow to the brain is blocked, millions of neurons are lost and nearby tissue can be damaged,” says J Mocco, MD, Professor and System Vice Chair in the Department of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai, and Director of the Cerebrovascular Center for the Mount Sinai Health System, who led the effort to design and implement the new stroke center at Mount Sinai Queens. “In addition to having the most advanced stroke imaging and treatment equipment that’s available today, our new Center is designed with imaging, diagnostic, and treatment capabilities in one location, By cutting down the time between when a patient presents in the emergency room and when we are able to restore blood flow to the brain, we will not only save lives but rapidly restore function so patients can continue to live their best lives.” 

The Mount Sinai Queens Stroke Center features specially designed equipment that is unique in the United States.  It contains the dual modalities of biplane angiography combined with CT, allowing diagnostic CT and the thrombectomy procedure to occur in the same room, on the same table, resulting in improved efficiency, speed, and quality.  Mount Sinai stroke experts anticipate that having the best imaging, diagnostic ability and treatment options in one location, a short distance from the emergency department will dramatically cut “door to needle” time (the time from arrival at the hospital to the beginning of clot removal), from the national target of 90 minutes.

“Residents of Queens deserve the innovative, high-quality, timely and patient-centered care offered by this novel center and we are proud to offer this level of care in the borough,” says David L. Reich, President and Chief Operating Officer, The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Queens.  “The Stroke Center is another step the hospital is taking to provide the community with critical clinical services right in Queens.”

Special guest Howard A. Zucker, MD, JD, Commissioner of Health for New York State, and Costa Constantinides, Council member for the 22^nd District of the New York City Council, joined the celebration as a show of support for effective and efficient stroke care. Mount Sinai Queens also unveiled significant support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

“We are tremendously grateful to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Queens delegation of the New York City Council, especially our own council member, Costa Constantinides, for their advocacy and support in the creation of this innovative Stroke Center,” says Caryn A. Schwab, Executive Director of Mount Sinai Queens. “The City Council provided funding for the specialized equipment, and today, we have unveiled the newly named Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Advanced Thrombectomy Suite. We believe this stroke center will not only improve care in the borough of Queens, but will also provide the foundation for groundbreaking research that will enhance the knowledge of stroke care globally.”

“We know what it takes to provide quality medical care employing current best practices, and access to that care should not depend on where you happen to live,” said SNF Program Officer Roula Siklas. “The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is proud to support Mount Sinai Queens in providing such care to stroke patients in Queens. This project is a testament to Mount Sinai’s vision along the axes of two very different timescales: the seconds that count in cases of stroke and the years and decades over which the Mount Sinai Queens Stroke Center will improve health outcomes. And through the research that takes place here, those benefits will extend far beyond the bounds of the borough.”

“Western Queens deserves a state-of-the-art stroke center, so that those in a medical emergency don’t have to cross a bridge to get quality care,” said Costa Constantinides. “The Queens Delegation and I fought so hard to ensure Mount Sinai Queens got that facility, because it was crucial to the health of the borough. I am so excited to see this amazing community partner provide the necessary, high-caliber service our citizens deserve.”

About Mount Sinai Queens
Mount Sinai Queens, a licensed acute care hospital, is at the forefront of healthcare delivery.   From its roots, more than 120 years ago, to the cutting-edge quality care and service it delivers today, Mount Sinai Queens is dedicated to serving the Borough of Queens and beyond. Mount Sinai Queens’ beautiful new six-story, 140,000 square foot, $180 million Pavilion is the centerpiece of the Hospital’s commitment to the Borough. Six new state-of-the-art operating rooms allow surgeons to perform elective, emergency, and complex procedures using the latest advances in medical technology including a Da Vinci Surgical System for robotic-assisted surgery. The new interventional radiology suite allows specialists to perform minimally invasive, image-guided procedures to diagnose and treat illnesses without surgery. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Emergency Department, which opened in May 2016 is staffed by Emergency-Medicine trained physicians on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine along with specialty-trained nurses and other staff. The new Emergency Department is designed to meet the urgent and emergent needs of the growing neighborhoods surrounding the Hospital. The Pavilion also houses Mount Sinai Doctors, a large multi-specialty practice providing primary and specialty outpatient medical care in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, and virtually all medical and surgical specialties with physicians on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.  A new outpatient Imaging center including a full range of state-of-the-art radiological testing rounds out the new Pavilion. The hospital has an unwavering commitment to patient safety, high quality care and an outstanding patient experience.  Mount Sinai Queens is singular in the borough to have received Magnet^® designation for nursing excellence, and Primary Stroke Center designation by both The Joint Commission and the NYS Department of Health. It is one of only two hospitals in the Borough that is designated as Thrombectomy-capable for diagnosing and treating stroke.  Epic, the hospital’s electronic medical record, allows instant access to critical patient information across all inpatient and outpatient departments enabling faster and more thorough treatment not only at Mount Sinai Queens but across most of the eight hospitals in the Mount Sinai Health System.

For more information, visit www.mountsinai.org/queens or find Mount Sinai Queens on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

About the Mount Sinai Health System
The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City’s largest integrated delivery system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai’s vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The Health System includes approximately 7,480 primary and specialty care physicians; 11 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 410 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. The Icahn School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Medical Schools”, aligned with a U.S. News & World Report’s “Honor Roll” Hospital, No. 12 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding, and among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by the journal Nature in its Nature Innovation Index. This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 18 on U.S. News & World Report’s “Honor Roll” of top U.S. hospitals; it is one of the nation’s top 20 hospitals in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Nephrology, and Neurology/Neurosurgery, and in the top 50 in six other specialties in the 2018-2019 “Best Hospitals” issue. Mount Sinai’s Kravis Children’s Hospital also is ranked nationally in five out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 11th nationally for Ophthalmology and 44th for Ear, Nose, and Throat. Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, Mount Sinai West, and South Nassau Communities Hospital are ranked regionally.

For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/, or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

https://www.newswise.com/articles/mount-sinai-queens-opens-expansive-state-of-the-art-thrombectomy-capable-stroke-center