According to a recent study, it is of great importance that where are you taking a patient who just suffered from a stroke. Patients report sudden weakness on one side of the body which is highly suggestive of a stroke of transient ischemic attack.

But how does the place matters when it comes to saving the life of a person suffering stroke?

Due to the recommendations from the American Stroke Association and the affiliated Brain Attack Coalition, dozens of hospitals have received certification as "primary stroke centers" in the last decade. This was a required step as stroke remains a leading cause of death and the leading cause of disability in this country.

In 2010, Kaiser San Rafael and Marin General Hospital were certified as primary stroke centers in Marin County.

This study involved 358 stroke patients at San Rafael Kaiser between January 2007 and July 2009 and it was found that after it received stroke certification, there was a 15% rise in the percentage of the patients arriving at the ED within six hours which is quite earlier.

As this research provides no strong evidence to generalize this to the United States a whole, a recent investigation of New York hospitals, published last month in JAMA, may become a cornerstone study for the stroke center movement.