Impact of Emergency Department Crowding on Delays in Acute Stroke Care

Introduction:Delays in identification and treatment of acute stroke contribute to significant morbidity and mortality. Multiple clinical factors have been associated with delays in acute stroke care. We aimed to determine the relationship between emergency department (ED) crowding and the delivery of timely emergency stroke care.Methods:We used prospectively collected data from our institutional Get with the Guidelines-Stroke registry to identify consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients presenting to our urban academic ED from July 2016 –August 2018. We used capacity logs to determine the degree of ED crowding at the time of patients’ presentation and classified them as ordinal variables (normal, high, and severe capacity constraints). Outcomes of interest were door-to-imaging time (DIT) among patients potentially eligible for alteplase or endovascular therapy on presentation, door-to-needle time (DTN) for alteplase delivery, and...
Source: Western Journal of Emergency Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Source Type: research