Your arm feels heavy and you are having a hard time concentrating.

You try to call out, but the words don't come out in understandable sentences.You look in the mirror and staring back at you is an uneven smile.You are having a stroke.In times like this, when minutes counts, you want the fastest treatment possible.Blue Mountain Health System's Gnaden Huetten and Palmerton campuses now are your answers. The two hospitals recently earned the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval for Advanced Certification for Primary Stroke Centers.The seal now allows ambulances transporting first-time stroke patients to bring them to the Lehighton or Palmerton campuses for care instead of out-of-county hospitals."This accreditation validates to the communities that we serve that we are providing the highest quality evidence based care," Dorothy Patzek, vice president of nursing and chief nursing officer, said. "It was a nine month journey for our stroke team and they did an incredible amount of work to get us to this point."Going through the accreditation processMarsha Resch, director of emergency services and the RN stroke coordinator, said that because of changing regulations, the health system started the process to become accredited.The stroke team identified that the best way to help the community was to provide the best care close to home."Our team included physicians, nurses, therapists and every entity of the hospitals to determine the best care, from the beginning of the stroke symptoms to the end of the stroke symptoms," she said, noting that all staff went through an additional eight hours of training to bring the two campuses up to meet regulations."Blue Mountain Health System has always given great stroke care," said Dr. Dennis Kondash DO, chief medical officer and vice president of medical affairs. "What we wanted to do was become certified so we can show the community that we have gone above and beyond just good stroke care to excellent stroke care."Seconds count"Time matters," Resch said, noting that the quicker a stroke patient is treated by medical staff, the better the chances of a full recovery.The problem that occurred was as regulations changed last year the state said ambulances would not be allowed to transport acute stroke patients to their closest hospital unless that hospital was certified as a primary stroke center.At the time, Blue Mountain Health System was not, meaning the closest hospitals were in the Lehigh Valley."If you can get a patient to a facility quickly, there are medications we can provide to help and different treatments that are available," Resch said."The quicker we treat these patients, the less permanent problems they have," Kondash added, noting that the first three hours after a patient starts experiencing stroke symptoms are the most critical in saving brain tissue. "Having people get treatment closer to home is much better for the patients."Educatingthe communityThrough the accreditation process, the stroke team also identified that educating the community about stroke risk factors, symptoms and what to do when strokes happen was also key to providing preventive care."We provided some programs to educate the community on strokes," Resch said, pointing out the acronym FAST Face, Arm, Speech, Time. "If a person is experiencing drooping in the face, has weakness in one arm, has slurred speech or is uncoordinated all of a sudden, call 911."Time is brain," she added. "Getting to the hospital by ambulance is the best way to get here too. Do not drive yourself."Resch noted that EMS personnel are trained to contact the hospital to tell them they have a stroke alert, which means that when the patient comes in on the ambulance, staff is ready to take them for a CT scan and get them the care they need quickly.Patzek added that people should not think strokes only happen to the elderly."We identified that there are a lot of middle aged people in the community with high stroke risk factors," she said."We see a lot more middle aged people having strokes these days over the elderly," Resch added, noting that this is because younger people are drinking and smoking and are obese."Don't be ashamed if you think you are having symptoms," Lisa Johnson, vice president of public relations and marketing at Blue Mountain Health System, said."People may pass a symptom off as they just worked too hard that day, but it is important to get to the ER and get checked just to make sure."