Main Line Health Joins the Jefferson Neuroscience Network

Monday, August 20, 2012

Main Line Health Neurovascular Center at Bryn Mawr HospitalAdvances Stroke Care in the Region

Main Line Health (MLH) has joined the Jefferson Neuroscience Network (JNN).  Through this collaboration, Jefferson and Main Line Health will provide some of the most sophisticated care and expertise available to patients with time-sensitive neurovascular diseases.  Bryn Mawr Hospital is the first and only hospital within the Main Line and western suburbs to have a university-affiliated neurosciences center for comprehensive stroke care. By joining JNN, the MLH Neurovascular Center at Bryn Mawr Hospital is able to offer patients access to the resources of Jefferson’s comprehensive stroke center, including community education programs, leading edge clinical trials and advanced protocols for the detection and treatment of stroke and other neuroscience disorders.

“Stroke is the third-leading cause of death in the United States, but the leading cause of disability,” said neuro-interventional neurosurgeon Grahame Gould, MD, Director of MLH Neurovascular Center at Bryn Mawr Hospital.  “On average, someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every three minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.”

The Center, which houses a multimillion-dollar neurointerventional lab, features the Siemens Artis zee Biplane system, providing a range of advanced 3-D applications that allow for greater speed and precision during angiography and fluoroscopy.  Patients have rapid access to innovative, nonsurgical procedures for the treatment of embolic strokes and nonruptured aneurysms.  

Following their procedures, patients will receive care in Bryn Mawr Hospital’s Neuro-Cardiac ICU, the only unit of its kind in the southeastern Pennsylvania region. The NC-ICU staff is specially trained to provide the unique type of intensive care that stroke patients require. The NC-ICU is one of only three hospitals in Pennsylvania to receive the American Association of Critical Care Nurses 2011 silver-level Beacon Award for Excellence. The three-year award (2012-15) recognizes caregivers who successfully improve patient outcomes and meet other national quality criteria.

“The Jefferson Neuroscience Network was established to place all of our resources, among them, vascular neurologists, dual-trained neurosurgeons, advanced technology, leading clinical trials in which we partner with the National Institutes of Health, and community education on neuroscience issues, at the disposal of patients, their families and physicians of hospitals participating in the network,” said Robert H. Rosenwasser, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.H.A., co-director of the Stroke Program at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Jewell L. Osterholm, MD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University. “Main Line Health is a leader in stroke care—all four of its acute care hospitals have received stroke certification from the Joint Commission as well as gold level status by the American Heart Association’s ‘Get with The Guidelines’ program. Now, with the establishment of this center at Bryn Mawr Hospital, patients are offered a whole new level of care and hope for a full recovery.”

About Main Line Health

Founded in 1985, Main Line Health (MLH) is a non-profit health system serving portions of Philadelphia and its western suburbs. At its core are four of the region’s most respected acute care hospitals — Lankenau Hospital, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Paoli Hospital and Riddle Hospital — as well as one of the nation’s premier facilities for rehabilitative medicine, Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital, and Mirmont Treatment Center for drug and alcohol recovery. Main Line Health, with over 10,000 employees and 2,000 physicians, provides the area’s most advanced medicine, as well as health-centered care, education and research to help our community stay well ahead on the path to life-long health.

About Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience

Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience is the region’s only dedicated hospital for neuroscience and leading, most experienced and comprehensive center for diagnosis and treatment of stroke and cerebrovascular disease.  The Jefferson Acute Stroke Center is the largest such facility, with more board-certified neurocritical care physicians, neurovascular neurologists and dual-trained neurosurgeons than any other center in the Delaware Valley.  It is also a Joint Commission-accredited primary stroke center and recipient of the Get with the Guidelines Gold*Plus award for its continued commitment to improving quality care.

Contact
Bridget Therriault
Director, Communications
Office: 484-580-1025
Cell: 484-222-9154
therriaultb@mlhs.org