Characteristics of the stroke alert process in a general Hospital

BACKGROUND: The organized stroke alert is critical in quickly evaluating and treating patients with acute stroke. The purpose of this paper was to further understand how this process functions in a moderate sized general hospital by exploring the effects of patient location and time of day on the pace of evaluation and the eventual outcome of evaluation. METHODS: Retrospective chart review. RESULTS: The rate of stroke alerts depended on the time of day and patient location. There was a low probability (41%) that the eventual diagnosis was stroke after a stroke alert, but there was no effect of diagnosis on the pace of evaluation. The time between stroke alert and a computed tomography (CT) scan being read was shortest for patients in the emergency room (ER) and longer for patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) or medical/surgical floors. Patients evaluated on medical/surgical floors were less likely to receive tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) than those evaluated in the ER, even though the comorbidities were similar. This may be due to the greater severity of the comorbidities in patients who were already admitted to the hospital. CONCLUSION: The rate of tPA administration was lower for stroke alerts called from medical/surgical floors than from the ER. Stroke alerts were most frequent in late afternoon.