Crozer-Chester Medical Center is providing lower-level stroke care with Jefferson Health contract

Crozer-Chester Medical Center will offer a lower level of stroke care under a contract with Thomas Jefferson University that took effect Jan. 15.

The Delaware County hospital has been downgraded from a comprehensive stroke center to what is known as a primary stroke center, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. That means it can still treat stroke victims with clot-busting drugs and provide other stabilizing treatment, but will need to transfer more complex patients.

The Philadelphia region now has 35 primary stroke centers and six comprehensive stroke centers. Minutes make a difference in treating stroke patients, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Crozer-Chester — which has struggled financially and put some critical vendors on payment plans — had been a comprehensive stroke center, the state’s highest certification level, when it was using an independent neurosciences practice for the services.

Comprehensive stroke centers care for all stroke victims, including those who need to have a clot removed using catheter inserted through a vein. They also treat people with brain aneurysms, and have an intensive care unit for neurology patients.

Crozer and Jefferson downplayed the difference in a news release Monday saying that Jefferson was providing “comprehensive neurological care” for its patients.

Separately, Crozer spokesperson Lori Bookbinder said the only treatments that Crozer would no longer offer as a primary stroke center were those involving the insertion of a catheter through a vein, or endovascular treatments.

“We are able to handle all cases except for endovascular, with the goal to do endovascular in the future. If an endovascular case presents in the ED, we’d transfer them to Jefferson,” Bookbinder said in an email.

Jefferson’s comprehensive stroke center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia is located 18 miles from Crozer-Chester.

The other five comprehensive stroke centers in the Philadelphia region are at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University Hospital, Cooper University Hospital, Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes, and Jefferson Washington Township Hospital, according to the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Departments of Health.