SID the ROBOT

Healdsburg Hospital and Healthcare Ranked Tops in Nation

Healdsburg District Hospital has eaned it’s Stroke Certification and is a leader in helping folks avoid a lifetime of debilitating side effects. I am proud to support HDH and the Alliance Medical Clic of Healdsburg.

 
“Ed and I are so very happy Healdsburg District Hospital has achieved stroke certification,” said Betty Kozel. “It is wonderful to have this level of stroke care right here in our own community. There is a large senior population in the hospital’s healthcare district. Our fellow seniors can rest assured help is near.”
 
Other HDH stroke care components include a new, high speed CT scanner. Funds to purchase the CT scanner were made possible by a grant from the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation in conjunction with the Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County. 
 
HDH is also well-equipped to care for patients after they’ve had a stroke. Patients requiring a hospital stay may benefit from inpatient physical, occupational, speech or respiratory therapy. Outpatient therapy for our patients who have suffered from a stroke can receive the same therapeutic care at HDH’s Outpatient Rehabilitation Therapy Services Department located at 1540 Healdsburg Avenue, 707-473-4400.
If you think you are having a stroke, call 9.1.1 immediately. Symptoms are easiest to remember by the American Stroke Association’s acronym FAST:
F  –  Face Drooping –  Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to       
        smile. Is the person’s smile uneven?
 
A  –  Arm Weakness – Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms.
        Does one arm drift downward?
 
S  – Speech Difficulty – Is speech slurred? Is the person unable to speak or hard to
      understand? Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence like “The sky is blue.” Is the
      sentence repeated correctly?
 
T  – Time to call 9.1.1 –  If someone shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go
      away, call 9.1.1 and immediately get the person to the hospital. Check the time so you’ll
      know when the symptoms first appeared.
HDH has partnered with Healdsburg Senior Center to offer a stroke support group led by Kate Ingram, RN and Karen Fraire, MSW. Meetings are held at the Healdsburg Senior Center located at 133 Matheson Street, Healdsburg. The stroke support group is open to Sonoma County stroke survivors and family members of all ages. Group meetings are held every third Friday of the month, from 2:30 to 3:45 pm. For more information on the support group, please contact Kate Ingram at 707-431-6349.

So here is the beauty of having a great local hospital. You realize that you may be having a stroke. If so call 911 and get an ambulance to come. The last thing you need is to have a car accident on the way there. The ambulance picks up patient and radios the ED that they are coming in, ED preps for the stroke patient by paging “code stroke” overhead and the stroke team members assemble, the patient arrives, the team goes to work with lab tests, CT scan of the head, overall physical assessment, connecting to Dr Tong at CPMS and following his instruction as indicated. It is very practiced and the patient is cared for quickly and efficiently.

Syd the robot is also known as remote presence technology. Syd is managed by a company named; Off Site Care Inc. Dr. James Gude is the genius behind Syd with a support team at California Pacific Medical Center. Dr. Gude is a local Doctor that has served at Sutter Medical Center in Santa Rosa in the ICU as Director for over 35 years.

It is the CT scan that identifies the location of the clot if there is one. And, it is the doctors who direct giving the clot buster medication. Also, to know, using the clot buster does not always end the stroke or reverse the symptoms – but it does help prevent the stroke from getting worse. The robot is critical to link the neurologist to the emergency doctors for consultation and direction of the “code stroke”. The specialty doctor on the robot can see the patient and can direct the care from a remote location. That robot is connected to a team of physicians at California Pacific Medical Center. The medical director for the team regarding strokes is a neurologist named Dr. Alan Bernstein. That team of physicians is able to pinpoint where the clot is, how big and access any damage.

Not all the warning signs occur in every stroke. Don’t ignore signs of stroke, even if they go away!