Impact of acute stroke team emergency calls on in-hospital delays in acute stroke care

Introduction: Acute stroke is a medical emergency. Therefore, early recognition and rapid activation of the medical system are important prerequisites for successful management. We sought to investigate the impact of our new Acute Stroke Team emergency call system (AST) on admission delays from the emergency department (ED) to the stroke care unit (SCU) and on the subsequent length of stay (LOS) and in-hospital mortality. Methods: We retrospectively analysed data obtained from the Austin Hospital stroke unit database and the electronic medical record/patient tracking system for the 5 months before (August to December 2004) and after (January to May 2005) the introduction of the AST. Results: Data for 352 patients were extracted. Of these, there were 260 (73.9%) patients with ischaemic stroke, 38 (10.8%) with intracerebral haemorrhage and 54 (15.3%) with transient ischaemic attack (TIA). One hundred and seventy-two patients were admitted before and 180 after AST introduction. There were 70 AST calls from January to May 2005. Baseline characteristics of both groups were similar. Between the two groups, the median (Q1,Q3) time from door to CT scan was significantly reduced from 104 (60,149) to 82 (40,132) minutes. The LOS was significantly reduced from 6 (3,9) to 3 (2,7) days. There was no significant impact on mortality. Conclusion: The introduction of AST has reduced the time from door to brain CT scan. This is an important finding as the window period for thrombolysis is short and early diagnosis is crucial. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.