Patient stands with medical team after recovering from a stroke.

Frisbie Memorial Hospital has received its first designation as a Primary Stroke Center, certified by the DNV, a global healthcare accrediting organization. This designation demonstrates the hospital’s readiness and commitment to provide safe and effective stroke care.

“Achieving Primary Stroke Center designation is an important achievement for Frisbie Memorial Hospital and the community, and is a testament to the hard work our colleagues do every day to provide high-quality care to our patients,” said Brian Sanders, MD, Seacoast market chief medical officer, HCA New England Healthcare. “And it is a great complement to the recertification at its sister facility, Portsmouth Regional Hospital, which is the Seacoast’s only Comprehensive Stroke Center. Together, we’re able to provide care quickly and safely to patients presenting with symptoms of a stroke throughout the Seacoast and for our patients in southern Maine and northern Massachusetts.”

Portsmouth Regional Hospital, which became the first Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) in New Hampshire in 2021, has received recertification as a CSC. Portsmouth Regional Hospital is one of two Comprehensive Stroke Centers in New Hampshire, and the only one on the Seacoast.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the US, but is both preventable and treatable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nearly 800,000 people have a stroke each year in the US, approximately 76 percent of which are first or new strokes. Find stroke facts here.