​​Comprehensive Stroke Center and Stroke Rehabilitation at UPMC Mercy

UPMC Mercy is certified as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. This is the highest level of stroke certification — earned by an elite group of hospitals recognized for providing state-of-the-art care for the most complex stroke cases.

Certification means we are ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year to deliver advanced stroke care. Our team works closely with emergency medical services (EMS) providers to ensure that care begins from the moment assistance arrives in the patient's home or in the field. At UPMC Mercy — part of the UPMC Stroke Institute​ — a “brain attack team” assembles to ensure that medical care is ready and waiting for the patient upon arrival.

Our advanced diagnostic capabilities enable our specialists to provide rapid diagnoses and faster interventions. Our state-of-the-art neurovascular suite allows clinicians to perform leading-edge diagnostic and endovascular interventional procedures on patients suffering from acute stroke and other neurovascular abnormalities.

Our skilled physicians perform the very latest procedures for stroke intervention, including:

• Aneurysm coiling
• Aneurysm clipping
• Cerebral vessel stenting
• Clot extraction (mechanical thrombectomy)
• Pipeline embolization

About Comprehensive Stroke Center Certification

UPMC Mercy joins an elite group of Comprehensive Stroke Center certified hospitals in the nation.

To be eligible, hospitals must comply with stroke-related standards as a Primary Stroke Center and demonstrate the significant resources, staff and training that are necessary for the treatment of the most complex stroke cases, including interventional procedures for acute strokes and hemorrhages. These additional requirements, include:

• A dedicated intensive care unit that is staffed around the clock
• Care for patients with strokes caused by blocked blood vessels in the brain (ischemic stroke) as well as brain bleeding (hemorrhagic stroke)
• Advanced imaging to help diagnose strokes
• Quick delivery of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) — a clot-busting drug used to treat ischemic stroke
• Advanced surgical procedures, such as coiling and clipping, to treat ruptured aneurysms that cause hemorrhagic stroke
• Assistance with coordinated care of stroke patients after discharge from the hospital
• Involvement in research to help improve care for stroke patients

View UPMC Mercy's stroke outcomes compared to the national rates​.

Acute Care Stroke Units

In the immediate days after a stroke, our team of highly trained, stroke-specific doctors and nurses provide patients with coordinated, around-the-clock monitoring and care in our dedicated neurocritical care and stroke units.

Stroke Rehabilitation

UPMC Mercy’s dedicated, inpatient Stroke Rehabilitation Unit gives our patients and their families the care, information, and support they need during the critical first days and weeks of recovery.

Our patients continue to recover and rebuild their life skills at UPMC’s Center for Stroke Rehabilitation — part of the nationally renowned UPMC Rehabilitation Institute. Based at UPMC Mercy, a specific, multidisciplinary treatment plan is created for each patient that can include speech, occupational, and physical therapies, under the direction of board-certified physical medicine and rehabilitation doctors.

The Rehabilitation Institute also offers its Robotics and Gaming Center at UPMC Mercy. Here, stroke patients can take advantage of robotics and gaming technologies, along with traditional therapies, as part of their treatment plan.

Stroke Support Group

If you or someone you know is a stroke survivor, join us on the second Saturday of every month from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. for our free support group, which meets in the Clark Auditorium on the 2nd floor of UPMC Mercy. This group is open to any interested member of the community.

In 2016, UPMC Mercy sponsored Pennsylvania’s first Retreat & Refresh Stroke Camp​ for stroke survivors and caregivers, part of a nationwide program.​​​​