Abstract
Background and Purpose—
Mobile
Stroke Units (MSUs) provide innovative prehospital stroke care but
their 24/7 operation has not been studied. Our study investigates 24/7
MSU diurnal variations related to transport frequency, patient
characteristics, and stroke treatments. (The whole purpose of these mobile units is to get patients recovered, not just deliver tPA. You do have to measure that recovery. Patients care about recovery. Maybe you should talk to a couple.)
Methods—
We
compared transportation frequency, demographics, thrombolytic and
mechanical thrombectomy administration, and treatment metrics across
8-hour shifts (morning, evening, and nocturnal) from our 24/7 MSU in
Northwest Ohio prospective database.
Results—
One
hundred ninety-five patients were transported by the MSU. Most
transports occurred during the morning shift (52.3%) followed by evening
shift (35.8%) and nocturnal shift (11.9%; Ptrend<0.001).
Twenty-three patients (11.9%) received intravenous thrombolytic in the
MSU, most frequently in the morning shift (56.5%). No cases of
mechanical thrombectomy were performed on MSU patients in the nocturnal
shift.
Conclusions—
Morning
and evening shifts account for the majority of our MSU transports
(88.1%) and therapeutic interventions. Understanding temporal variations
in a resource-intensive MSU is critical to its worldwide
implementation.
Footnotes
*Drs Zaidat and Changal are co-first authors.
Correspondence
to Osama O. Zaidat, MD, MS, FAHA, Northeast Ohio Medical University
(NeoMed), St. Vincent Hospital, M200, Toledo, OH 43608. Email
oozaidat@mercy.com
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