Hillcrest Hospital Neurological Institute Brings Specialists Close to Home

With the opening of the new Neurological Institute at Hillcrest Hospital, patients can get the kind of specialized care that was only available at the Cleveland Clinic.

"It provides access," said Dr. Stephen Samples, director of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Regional Neurosciences. "The way we developed it, there are a couple of neurologists and a neurosurgeon working there. We're drawing them from the main campus a day or so a week. This way people don't have to drive to the main campus. We bring the specialists to you."

The institute, located on the ground floor of the Seidman Tower, offers general neurology and surgery, spine surgery and treatment of strokes, aneurysms, multiple sclerosis, sleep disorders, headaches, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

"We built a 8,700-square-foot outpatient space with five infusion beds for treatment of headaches and multiple sclerosis. They can get treatment and they don't have to be admitted," Samples said.

The hospital also added biplane angiography device that allows doctors to run a catheter up to the part of an artery that is clogged.

"It's a building an acute-level stroke care that's rarely seen in a community hospital. It's a top-line stroke center," Samples said.

The institute has a four-bed lab for sleep studies and offers onsite electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography (EEG) tests of electrical activity in muscles and nerves.

"This is one of my favorite projects," Samples said. "Our goal was to bring out super specialists to the east side so it would be convenient for patients."