While treatment is delivered faster when emergency medical services notifies hospitals of incoming stroke patients, this practice doesn't occur in nearly one-third of cases, according to two studies in American Heart Association journals.
Researchers studied stroke patients transported by EMS to a hospital participating in the American Heart Association's Get with The Guidelines-Stroke program between 2003 and 2011. The researchers found treatment was delivered faster for patients when EMS notified hospitals than when EMS did not send notification. For example, among patients arriving to a hospital within two hours of symptom onset, those with EMS pre-notification had arrival-to-imaging time of 26 minutes compared to 31 minutes for patients without pre-notification.
Despite these benefits, pre-notification occurred in only 67 percent of patients in 2011, only slightly up from 58 percent in 2003, according to the study.
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Researchers studied stroke patients transported by EMS to a hospital participating in the American Heart Association's Get with The Guidelines-Stroke program between 2003 and 2011. The researchers found treatment was delivered faster for patients when EMS notified hospitals than when EMS did not send notification. For example, among patients arriving to a hospital within two hours of symptom onset, those with EMS pre-notification had arrival-to-imaging time of 26 minutes compared to 31 minutes for patients without pre-notification.
Despite these benefits, pre-notification occurred in only 67 percent of patients in 2011, only slightly up from 58 percent in 2003, according to the study.
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