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Montgomery County Hospital District EMS Publishes Study to Examine Pre-Hospital Evaluation of LVO Stroke

Montgomery County Hospital District EMS Publishes Study to Examine Pre-Hospital Evaluation of LVO Stroke
 
To analyze the sensitivity of MCHD's current practice in identifying severity of strokes and in distinguishing LVO strokes, the team looked back at their past stroke alert patients over a period of 21 months, examining cases their EMS personnel had identified as strokes using the South East Texas Regional Advisory Committee (SETRAC) guideline and stroke severity assessment. Within this data, the team looked at whether the identified stroke patients were taken to primary or comprehensive stroke centers and quantified those decisions.
 
MCHD found that their paramedics decided to take patients to comprehensive stroke centers in 41% of identified stroke cases. In May 2016, MCHD began conducting a complementary study, the Validation of Integrating a Stroke Algorithm (VISA) study, which will include and evaluate the RACE score as a means of determining severity of strokes and LVO when added to the current SETRAC tool. They will then compare the rate at which their team elected to take stroke patients to comprehensive centers with the added RACE score to their previous rate, as a means of determining whether this tool can help further identify patients who need the specialized care these centers provide.

In their paper, MCHD also sites data that suggests use of mobile care coordination technology can help improve door-to-needle times, saying "the use of mobile technologies from Pulsara - Stop Stroke and Stop STEMI - have shown promising improvements of up to 46% in door-to-therapy times in STEMI and [Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS)]."

Because new technologies and protocols are fast emerging in the treatment of LVO stroke patients, it is imperative that all clinicians evaluate their current systems against emerging tools to decide whether there is a need to update their processes to provide the best possible care for these extremely sensitive patients. Facilities like MCHD are leading the charge in this initiative and in so doing, continue to uphold their commitment to excellence for their patients. 

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