LITTLE ROCK – North Metro Medical Center in Jacksonville has partnered with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) to provide life-saving emergency care for stroke patients in the region. 

Called AR SAVES (Arkansas Stroke Assistance through Virtual Emergency Support), the program uses a high-speed video communications system to help provide immediate, life-saving treatments to stroke patients 24 hours a day. The real-time video communication enables a stroke neurologist to evaluate whether emergency room physicians should use a powerful blood-clot dissolving agent within the critical three-hour period following the first signs of stroke. 

The AR SAVES program is a partnership between the UAMS Center for Distance Health, the state Department of Human Services, North Metro Medical Center and 47 other Arkansas hospitals.

Arkansas, which ranks first in the nation in stroke death rates, had 1,560 stroke-related deaths in 2011, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nationwide direct and indirect cost of medical and institutional care of permanently disabled stroke victims was $73.7 billion in 2010, according to the American Heart Association’s 2012 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics.

Since the program began Nov. 1, 2008, more than 2,791 patients have received stroke consults through AR SAVES and 751 patients have received the blood-clot dissolving agent.

Forty-seven  other Arkansas hospitals are participating in the AR SAVES program.

The AR SAVES program will continue adding hospitals across Arkansas in the coming months, said Curtis Lowery, M.D., director of the UAMS Center for Distance Health.