Improved Prehospital Triage of Patients With Stroke in a Specialized Stroke Ambulance

Abstract

Background and Purpose—: Specialized management of patients with stroke is not available in all hospitals. We evaluated whether prehospital management in the Stroke Emergency Mobile (STEMO) improves the triage of patients with stroke. Methods—: STEMO is an ambulance staffed with a specialized stroke team and equipped with a computed tomographic scanner and point-of-care laboratory. We compared the prehospital triage of patients with suspected stroke at dispatcher level who either received STEMO care or conventional care. We assessed transport destination in patients with different diagnoses. Status at hospital discharge was used as short-term outcome. Results—: From May 2011 to January 2013, 1804 of 6182 (29%) patients received STEMO care and 4378 of 6182 (71%) patients conventional care. Two hundred forty-five of 2110 (11.6%) patients with cerebrovascular events were sent to hospitals without Stroke Unit in conventional care when compared with 48 of 866 (5.5%; P P P P =0.096). Conclusions—: The triage of patients with cerebrovascular events to specialized hospitals can be improved by STEMO ambulances. Clinical Trial Registration—: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier: NCT01382862.