UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Hinsdale can now treat the most complex stroke cases without transferring patients to hospitals farther away, after earning the Joint Commission's Comprehensive Stroke Center certification on Sunday, Aug. 9.

The designation is the highest stroke certification the Joint Commission offers. Only about 3% of hospitals nationwide hold it.

The certification means the Oak Street hospital has a full multidisciplinary stroke team available around the clock, advanced diagnostic imaging, endovascular treatment capabilities and the ability to accept stroke transfers from other hospitals. Previously, patients arriving with large-vessel occlusion strokes had to be diverted to thrombectomy-capable hospitals outside the community.

Cerebrovascular neurosurgeon Omer Doron, MD, PhD, said in an earlier AdventHealth announcement about the hospital's stroke program expansion that having the thrombectomy procedure available near patients' homes will improve survival rates and quality of life, because every minute without oxygen during a stroke costs brain function.

Doron, who holds a PhD in biomedical engineering and completed more than 2,500 minimally invasive endovascular neurosurgeries during fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital and Lenox Hill Northwell Health, joined AdventHealth Hinsdale to lead its push toward the comprehensive designation. He oversaw the opening of a neurointerventional angiography suite where thrombectomies and other advanced cerebrovascular procedures are now performed.

The hospital illustrated the certification's real-world impact through the case of Barbara, 72, of Willow Springs. Her stroke symptoms began at 10:15 a.m. Within an hour of arriving at the Hinsdale emergency room, Doron performed an emergency thrombectomy, threading a catheter from her thigh into her brain to remove a clot caused by atrial fibrillation.

"It's amazing to think my symptoms started at 10:15 in the morning and everything was taken care of only a few hours later," Barbara said in the hospital's Aug. 9 announcement. "To have this right here locally, I feel I was so lucky to end up in that ER at that time."

President and CEO Elise MacCarroll-Wright, who presented the hospital's stroke-care investments to the Hinsdale Village Board on May 19, said the certification gives the community confidence that advanced stroke care is available close to home when every minute matters.

The hospital also earned the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines Stroke GOLD PLUS award and AHA Target: Stroke Honor Roll – Elite recognition for treating 85% of acute ischemic stroke patients with clot-busting medication within 60 minutes of arrival.

Within the four-hospital UChicago Medicine AdventHealth system, Hinsdale is now the only Comprehensive Stroke Center. Bolingbrook and La Grange hold Advanced Primary Stroke Center designations, and GlenOaks holds a Primary Stroke Center designation. All four are networked so patients can be transferred to Hinsdale for the most complex cases.

The certification is valid for two years. AdventHealth Hinsdale employs more than 1,350 team members and is DuPage County's only teaching hospital.