Temporary Emergency Guidance to US Stroke Centers During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic

Abstract

During this unprecedented time of extraordinary stress on the US healthcare system, the AHA/ASA Stroke Council—as individuals in our localities and together as an entity at the national level—acknowledge the mounting concern regarding optimal stroke care during the COVID-19 pandemic among vascular neurologists and those clinicians who care for patients with stroke. We therefore seek to provide guidance for the care of stroke patients in the midst of the crisis. Ordinarily, national recommendations go through a rigorous process of development, refinement, peer review, and thoughtful promulgation. None of that is possible at this time, yet we believe there is a substantial need for a broad policy statement that reflects both the commonality of the pandemic across the US and the individual variability necessary at local sites. We issue this temporary statement as an interim stopgap opinion, pending a more thorough and considered process.