UM SRH team members and Caroline County Commissioners present during the June 25 Caroline County Commission meeting are, from left, Caroline County Commissioner Larry C. Porter; Commission President J. Travis Breeding; Nicole Leonard, BSN, RN, Neuroscience Specialist/Stroke Coordinator, UM SRH; Rena Sukhdeo Singh, MD, Medical Director, Primary Stroke Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton; and Commissioner N. Franklin Bartz.
UM SRH leadership and team members, Dorchester County Council members and members of the Dorchester County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Division were present during the June 19 Dorchester County Council meeting. During the meeting, council members presented UM SRH and county EMS team members with a Stroke Smart proclamation to increase public awareness and identification of stroke signs and symptoms.
UM SRH leadership and team members and Kent County Commissioners present during the July 23 Kent County Commission meeting are, from left, Tisha D. Thompson, DNP, RN, NE-BC, Regional Director, Emergency Services, UM SRH; Kent County Commissioner Albert H. Nickerson; Nicole Leonard, BSN, RN, Neuroscience Specialist/Stroke Coordinator, UM SRH; Rena Sukhdeo Singh, MD, Medical Director, Primary Stroke Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton; Commission President Ronald H. Fithian; and Commissioner John F. Price.
UM SRH leadership and team members, Queen Anne’s County Commissioners and members of Queen Anne’s County law enforcement and the county’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Division were present during the July 9 Queen Anne’s County Commission meeting. During the meeting, commissioners presented UM SRH and county EMS team members with a Stroke Smart proclamation to increase public awareness and identification of stroke signs and symptoms.
UM SRH leadership and team members and Talbot County Council members present during the May 14 Talbot County Council meeting are, from left, front row: Tisha D. Thompson, DNP, RN, NE-BC, Regional Director, Emergency Services, UM SRH; Nicole Leonard, BSN, RN, Neuroscience Specialist/Stroke Coordinator, UM SRH; Talbot County Council member Dave Stepp; Rena Sukhdeo Singh, MD, Medical Director, Primary Stroke Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton; Susan Lizewski, BSN, RN, ICU Nurse Manager, UM SRH; Danielle Wilson, MSN, RN, NE-BC, Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services, and Chief Nursing Officer, UM SRH. From left, back row, standing, are Talbot County Council Member Pete Lesher, Talbot County Council President Chuck Callahan, and Talbot County Council members Lynn Mielke and Keasha N. Haythe.
EASTON, Md. (August 28, 2024) – County councils in Caroline, Dorchester, Kent and Queen Anne’s recently presented proclamations to University of Maryland Shore Regional Health’s (UM SRH) Stroke Committee. These proclamations designated these counties as “Stroke Smart” counties. Talbot County issued a proclamation in May 2024. UM SRH is a member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS).
“One of the main goals of the Stroke Smart initiative is to increase public awareness of stroke signs and symptoms and highlight the importance of calling 911 at the first sign of a stroke,” said Nicole Leonard, BSN, RN, Neuroscience Specialist/Stroke Coordinator for UM SRH. “These Stroke Smart proclamations reinforce our shared commitment to that.”
Rena Sukhdeo Singh, MD, Medical Director of the Primary Stroke Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton, has been working with local governments in Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties to obtain these proclamations since early winter 2024.
" University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is extremely excited to have received Stroke Smart proclamations for all five of the counties our hospital system serves,” said Dr. Sukhdeo Singh. “This is a big accomplishment for our dedicated stroke team, our emergency medical services partners and our communities. These proclamations symbolize our commitment to providing stroke education to our communities; including identifying stroke symptoms, risk factors and what to do in the event of a potential stroke.”
As part of the Stroke Smart initiative, UM SRH nursing team members will train community members throughout the five-county region served by UM Shore Regional Health to identify the signs and symptoms of a stroke and activate EMS by calling 911 at the first sign of a stroke. Additional training will focus on stroke prevention, how to prevent a repeat stroke event, rehabilitation, how to move forward after a stroke and caregiver support of a loved one following a stroke.
“Early identification is key to preventing the long-term effects of a stroke. Our nursing team members are excited to get out into our communities and provide stroke identification education within public school curricula, nursing homes, community and senior centers, churches and other places where people gather and get information,” said Danielle Wilson, MSN, RN, NE-BC, Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services, and Chief Nursing Officer at UM SRH. “We thank our local governments and community members for this opportunity to provide stroke identification education and additional support to the region we serve.”
UM Shore Medical Center at Easton is a designated Primary Stroke Center by the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS). The Center treats more than 400 patients per year.
In 2023, MIEMMS created the a video highlighting the Stroke Smart initiative, which features Dr. Sukhdeo Singh and Caroline County Emergency Medical Services. More information is also available on the MIEMSS website.
About University of Maryland Shore Regional Health
A member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH) is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of five counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore: Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot. UM SRH consists of approximately 2,000 team members, including more than 600 health care providers on the Medical Staff, who work with community partners to advance the values that are foundational to our mission: Compassion, Discovery, Excellence, Diversity and Integrity. For more information, visit www.umms.org/shore.
About the University of Maryland Medical System
The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state’s future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System’s anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit https://www.umms.org.
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