Delivering high‑quality stroke care is a top priority at Saint Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport. Now, the hospital’s stroke center has earned a prestigious certification affirming the work it says it has put in over the last six years.

“When you treat strokes, time is brain, is the way I like to think about it. So, for every minute that a stroke goes untreated, you’re losing about two million brain cells,” says Dr. Steven Valassis, chair of the Emergency Department at St. Vincent’s Medical Center.

The stroke team is multidisciplinary and consists of EMS, the Emergency Department and Neurology. They operate with urgency, not wasting a single minute when it comes to treatment.

“We evaluate the patient, we determine that they are having a stroke and we give them the treatment as fast as we can,” says Dr. Jeremy Wells, stroke director at St. Vincent’s Medical Center. “Our goal is to do that within 30 minutes, and then, after we treat the patient, we stay with them while they’re in the hospital.”

“When patients get here, we get them directly to CAT scan and get the images that we need, together with the examination and the history, to decide which and what type of treatment is warranted,” says Dr. Valassis.

Doctors Wells and Valassis, along with their teams, say they have spent years building up their program to improve stroke care for the community they serve and the broader New England region. These efforts led to the hospital’s Comprehensive Stroke Center receiving the Gold Seal of Approval from The Joint Commission, joining the ranks of Yale New Haven Hospital and Hartford Hospital.

“You can think about it like the Academy Awards. This award is reserved for hospitals that are giving the highest quality of stroke care,” says Dr. Wells.

The stroke team credits collaboration, advanced neuroimaging, enhanced protocols and advancements in medical technology as reasons they are able to offer the highest level of care.

“When they come in the door and they are having a stroke, this is one of the most terrifying moments of their life and their family’s life, and it’s helpful to be seen by the same team all the way through,” says Dr. Wells.