{"id":65707,"date":"2022-09-15T08:00:02","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T14:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=65707"},"modified":"2023-08-10T08:18:49","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T14:18:49","slug":"kirstin-buchanan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/kirstin-buchanan\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirstin Buchanan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kirstin Buchanan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Striving to improve the time window for stroke treatment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fast, quality care for stroke patients is the goal for Kirstin Buchanan and the team that works on UCHealth\u2019s Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit.<\/p>\n

Always striving to improve the time that it takes for a patient to receive life-changing medication and treatment, Buchanan embarked on a UEXCEL project two years ago to consider using a new assessment tool to identify patients who have a large vessel occlusion stroke that affects a large portion of the brain.<\/p>\n

The MSTU is an ambulance equipped to diagnose and treat strokes in a prehospital setting \u2013 a patient\u2019s living room, a car on the side of Interstate 25, or the meat aisle at King Soopers. Nurses, paramedics, EMTs and CT technologists aboard the MSTU conduct assessments, perform CT scans, and transmit the images to a neuro radiologist, who discusses the results with a neurologist at UCHealth who, in many cases, authorizes the delivery of a clot-busting drug, tPA, in the prehospital setting.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0New England Journal of Medicine<\/em>\u00a0has published\u00a0the results of the\u00a0BEST-MSU study<\/a>, showing that patients treated aboard an MSTU are 2.5 times more likely to have a better outcome. For every second that treatment is delayed, an\u00a0average of<\/a>\u00a0more than 30,000 neurons die.<\/p>\n

Buchanan\u2019s project evaluated whether using a stroke assessment tool to evaluate an assessment tool called VAN – vision, aphasia and neglect, which occurs when there is a deficit in attention or awareness to one side of the field of vision or to the affected limb — in concert with the traditional NIHSS stroke assessment tool, could save time for patients who had a large vessel occlusion stroke. The project also included educating all staff members on how to use the VAN and ultimately, rewriting protocols and guidelines to include use of the VAN onboard UCHealth\u2019s MSTU.<\/p>\n

When responding to a possible stroke, the MSTU team begins assessing patients immediately upon meeting the patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi, I\u2019m Kirstin. I\u2019m a nurse, and I\u2019m here to help you. Can you tell me what day it is?\u2019\u2019 Buchanan begins. The team is also looking for telltale signs of stroke:<\/p>\n