Call to hospital times for suspected stroke patients in the North East of England: a service evaluation
Average rating
Cast your vote
You can rate an item by clicking the amount of stars they wish to award to this item.
When enough users have cast their vote on this item, the average rating will also be shown.
Star rating
Your vote was cast
Thank you for your feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Journal title
British Paramedic Journal
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Introduction: Stroke is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. The role of the ambulance service in acute stroke care focuses on recognition followed by rapid transport to specialist care. The treatment options for acute ischaemic strokes are time dependent, so minimising the prehospital phase of care is important. The aim of this service evaluation was to report historical pre-hospital times for suspected stroke patients transported by the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS) and identify areas for improvement. Methods: This was a retrospective service evaluation using routinely collected data. Data on overall call to hospital times, call to arrival times, on scene times and leave scene to hospital are reported. Results: Data on 24,070 patients with an impression of stroke transported by NEAS between 1 April 2011 and 31 May 2018 are reported. The median call to hospital time increased from 41 to 68 minutes, call to arrival from 7 to 17 minutes, on scene from 20 to 30 minutes and leave to hospital from 12 to 15 minutes. Conclusion: The pre-hospital call to hospital time for stroke patients increased between 2011 and 2018. The call to arrival phase saw a sharp increase between 2015 and 2017, whereas on scene and leave scene to hospital saw steadier increases. Increasing demand on the ambulance service, reorganisation of regional stroke services and other factors may have contributed to the increase in times. Reducing the on scene phase of pre-hospital stroke care would lead to patient benefits and is the area where ambulance clinicians have the most influence. Abstract published with permission.ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.29045/14784726.2019.09.4.2.31
Scopus Count
Collections