In a year Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital has cut in half the time it takes to get a suspected stroke patient in for a CT scan.

Minutes matter in cases of stroke, which is the third leading cause of death in the country. The CT scan is typically one of the first tests done in diagnosing a stroke patient, and speeding up the process is just one of many steps the Carilion Clinic flagship hospital is taking to improve its overall treatment of stroke patients.

A little over a year ago Carilion undertook a process to organize the way it treats stroke. Since then the hospital has seen a significant increase in the number of stroke patients discharged. Stroke discharges increased to 80 patients for June, up from 43 patients in June 2009.

Lewis-Gale Medical Center has seen an increase in patients admitted for stroke symptoms, according to spokeswoman Joy Sutton. She didn't quantify the increase.

It's unclear what's causing the increase in stroke patients at the area's two largest hospitals.

Sutton did not offer an explanation on the increase at Lewis-Gale.

Dr. Sidney Mallenbaum, medical director of Carilion's stroke unit, said he doesn't think more people are having strokes, but that the hospital is doing a better job of identifying stroke patients and getting them into treatment quickly.

Both hospitals are working to make the community more aware of the symptoms of stroke.

Sutton said Lewis-Gale held a stroke awareness program in March and that it has stepped up stroke education with hospital employees.

Carilion started a large advertising campaign in December to teach the community about stroke symptoms, and has also increased its educational efforts to its employeesv. The education is in line with getting people with stroke symptoms to a hospital quickly.

If a person is treated with the intravenous clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, within three hours of the onset of symptoms, they stand a much better chance of full recovery, said Mallenbaum, who is also a neurologist. The drug is the only one approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the urgent treatment of stroke.

Walter Wood, 75, of Roanoke County said fast treatment for his symptoms made a difference. Wood was treated in June 2009 at Roanoke Memorial for a stroke just as the new efforts were getting under way.

He was driving when he lost his hand coordination, and his speech became slurred. Soon the entire right side of his body went numb. He pulled into a parking lot. His wife called 911.

In about an hour he was given tPA. Within four hours the feeling on his right side returned and he could talk.

"It was unreal," he said.

A pastor, Wood credited prayer and medicine for his full recovery.

When Wood was treated, Carilion had just begun to establish a protocol for each potential stroke patient who came through the doors. That and other steps led the hospital to be accredited in June as a primary stroke center by the national hospital accrediting body the Joint Commission.

Mallenbaum said the hope is to continue to improve the care by better tracking outcomes and following up with stroke patients after they leave the hospital.

"I tell my staff this is only the beginning," he said.