Comparison of Stroke Codes in the Emergency Room and Inpatient Setting

Outcomes of acute stroke management are time dependent. Intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) is indicated within 3-4.5 hours of symptom onset and endovascular intervention within 6 hours. Time to treatment may depend on the patient's location. This study seeks to determine whether there is a difference in the timing of key aspects of stroke codes between the emergency room and the inpatient setting.

Stroke codes ending in t-PA administration or endovascular intervention between 2010 and 2013 were included. Emergency room stroke codes were compared with those in the inpatient setting. Data were obtained from the Yarmon Stroke Center log. The variables were time to neurological evaluation, time to computed tomography (CT) scan, time to t-PA administration, time from CT scan to t-PA, and time to endovascular intervention. The variables were compared using the t test.

One hundred twenty-two stroke codes were included (106 from emergency room and 16 from inpatient setting). There was no difference in the time to neurological evaluation (P = .19). The time to CT scan and to t-PA administration was significantly increased in the inpatient group (P ≤ .001 and P = .01, respectively). There was no difference in the time from CT scan to t-PA (P = .09) and in the time to endovascular intervention (P = .21).

Our results show that in the inpatient setting, there was a significant delay in the time to CT scan and to t-PA administration and that the source of the delay is the time to CT scan.