Baptist Jacksonville Acknowledged as Comprehensive Stroke Center

Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville (FL, USA) has been designated as a Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (Tallahassee, USA).

The CSC designation is Florida’s highest level of stroke certification, and follows the March 2014 opening of the new Stroke & Cerebrovascular Center, which includes state-of-the art, fully dedicated advanced neurosurgical operating rooms (ORs) with intraoperative MRI and CT capabilities. A new neurointerventional suite is also available with an imaging system that provides enhanced visibility for the physician and reduced radiation exposure. Along with 48 private suites for medical and surgical neurological care, the center has a dedicated 12-bed neurointensive care unit—soon to be expanded to 24-bed—for critical care patients with neurological and neurosurgical conditions.


Two internationally renowned neurovascular surgeons, Ricardo Hanel, MD, PhD, and Eric Sauvageau, MD, will oversee the center, which will serve as the regional epicenter for advanced diagnostics and treatments for all cerebrovascular conditions. The surgeons will be available 24 hours a day to evaluate if a patient will benefit from a procedure to remove a blockage or stop a hemorrhage causing the stroke. Drs. Hanel and Sauvageau are also the directors of stroke and cerebrovascular surgery for Lyerly Neurosurgery (Jacksonville, FL, USA).

“We are pleased to receive this comprehensive stroke certification. I think it’s a nice regulatory stamping on the excellent service that we provide at Baptist,” said Dr. Hanel. “Baptist's Stroke & Cerebrovascular Center is the most comprehensive stroke center in Jacksonville and the region providing adults and children access to stroke and other cerebrovascular care under one roof.”

“The comprehensive stroke certification is an outside confirmation of what we already know, which is we are offering a complex level of care,” added Dr. Sauvageau. “Baptist’s Stroke & Cerebrovascular Center works with area hospitals as part of a multisite system of care providing improved access to patients, who in the past may have been transported outside the area during a life-threatening emergency for such conditions as strokes or brain aneurysms.”

“Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville is expanding access to the most advanced therapy for treatment of stroke and brain aneurysm patients,” said Nicole Thomas, vice president of Operations and Specialty Services for Baptist Health. “Achieving the designation required a team of clinical experts in neurological care, including neurologists and neurosurgeons and having available advanced diagnostic tools and surgical and endovascular treatments to deliver the highest quality stroke care.”

Related Links:
Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville
Florida Agency for Health Care Administration
Lyerly Neurosurgery