Telestroke: Maintaining Quality Acute Stroke Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

INTRODUCTION: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly impacted acute stroke care globally. Decreased stroke presentations and concern for delays in acute stroke care have been identified. This study evaluated the impact of COVID-19 on the timely treatment of patients with thrombolytics at hospitals utilizing telestroke acute stroke services. METHODS: Acute stroke consultations seen in 171 hospitals (19 states) via telestroke from December 1, 2019, to June 27, 2020, were extracted from the TeleCare™ database. The consults were divided into pre-COVID and COVID groups (March 15, 2020, start of COVID group). The consults were reviewed for age, sex, hospital, state, date seen, last known normal, arrival time, consult call time, needle time, thrombolytic candidate, and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score. The total number of consults, median door to needle (DTN) time for emergency department (ED) patients, and call to needle (CTN) time for inpatients were calculated. RESULTS: Pre-COVID, 15,226 stroke consults were evaluated compared with 11,105 in the COVID group, a 27% decrease. Pre-COVID, 1,071 ED patients (7.9%) received thrombolytics and 66 inpatients (4.0%), while COVID, 813 ED patients (8.2%) and 70 inpatients (5.7%). The median DTN time for ED patients pre-COVID was 42 (32, 55) versus 40 (31, 52) in the COVID group, with no statistically significant difference between groups. CTN time pre-COVID was 53 (35, 67) versus 46 (35, 61) in the COVID group, with no statistically significant difference between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Telestroke assessments allowed for uninterrupted acute stroke care and treatment stability despite nursing and other resource realignments triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.