5 Hills Health Region Leads the Country

The Five Hills Health region has implemented an organized stroke care scheme that has resulted in the lowest mortality rate in Canada.

Moose Jaw physician and Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson, Dr. Wadea Tarhuni says the strategy allows a suspected stroke patient to be fast-tracked. "The first chain of care is the patient, the second chain of care is the paramedics and the ambulance, the third is the emergency room, and the fourth is the hospitals. In Moose Jaw here we are able to identify the four chains of care to work together to achieve the target which is to get the patient in within three hours and we're able to do it with 75 per cent of our patients."

As a result, Dr. Tarhuni says 60 percent of stroke patients went home, only 12 percent died, the lowest rate in all of Canada.

This strategy is also now in place in Saskatoon, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation is working to develop a provincial strategy to give all people in the province access to organized stroke care by 2010.