Stroke Center Portsmouth Regional Hospital
A message to the Portsmouth Family from the CEO of Portsmouth Regional Hospital
The greatest attribute of Portsmouth Regional Hospital (PRH) is the amazing talent we have in this building. I have said to many over my six years at PRH how blown away I am by the talent in this organization. The key to PRH’s success and tremendous growth is based in this very fact. The neuroscience service line is a perfect example of this. Our facility along with our interventional team, set out five years ago with a vision of becoming a Comprehensive Stroke Center. A comprehensive stroke center recognizes those very few organizations who have the capabilities and resources to take care of patients ranging from ischemic stroke to hemorrhagic stroke (aneurysm). PRH has for many years been a primary stroke center, delivering evidence-based care and meeting core competencies in the delivery of TPA, a clot busting drug. The leadership and partnership with Dr. Archie McGowan led the organization in 2017 to embark on growing from a primary stroke center to one which could provide advanced level care in the retrieval of clots utilizing a device called Trevo.
As PRH continued to refine its operations and experience success taking care of some of the most neurologically sick patients, the goal of becoming a comprehensive center that could take care of the full spectrum of stroke disease was within grasp. Our impact would not only benefit all the residents of the New Hampshire, Maine and Northern Massachusetts Seacoast, but to the greater state of New Hampshire. PRH and UMass Memorial Medical Center began discussions in early 2019 to bring some of the nation’s most talented neuro-interventionalist to Portsmouth. In September 2019, PRH and UMass began performing elective aneurysm procedures and on Saturday May 17, PRH, Dr. Ajit Puri and Dr. Jasmeet Singh took care of its first Emergent Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.
This journey has taken an amazing amount of perseverance, innovation, strategy and execution by so many people. I want to personally acknowledge Dr. Archie McGowan for his resilience and partnership in ensuring that this community and the state have access to this life-saving service. I also want to thank Dr. Ajit Puri and all of his colleagues at UMass for their vision, innovation and commitment to making this partnership come to fruition. PRH couldn’t accomplish this without the support of Dr. Dawn Barclay and her intensivist colleagues, our neurosurgeon team of Dr. Hank Pallatroni, Dr. Carlos Palacio, Dr. Gareth Davis, and our service line leadership of Megan Gray and Hunter Davis.
The picture of Dr. Ajit Puri and Dr. Jasmeet Singh says it all!
Dean M. Carucci
Chief Executive Officer
Portsmouth Regional Hospital
