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Brief Educational Intervention Improves Emergency Medical Services Stroke Recognition.

ABSTRACT: Background and Purpose- Recognition of stroke symptoms and hospital prenotification by emergency medical services (EMS) facilitate rapid stroke treatment; however, one-third of patients with stroke are unrecognized by EMS. To promote stroke recognition and quality measure compliant prehospital stroke care, we deployed a 30-minute online EMS educational module coupled with a performance feedback system in a single Michigan county. Methods- During a 24-month study period, a registry of consecutive EMS-transported suspected or unrecognized stroke cases was utilized to perform an interrupted time series analysis of the impact of the EMS education and feedback intervention. For each agency, we compared EMS stroke recognition and quality measure compliance rates, as well as emergency department performance and hospital outcomes during 12 preintervention months with performance in the remaining study months. Results- A total of 1805 EMS-transported cases met inclusion criteria; 1235 (68.4%) of these had ischemic or hemorrhagic strokes or transient ischemic attacks. There were no trends toward improvement in any outcome before the intervention. After the intervention, the EMS stroke recognition rate increased from 63.8% to 69.5% ( P=0.037). Prenotification increased from 60.9% to 77.3% ( P<0.001). Among patients with ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack, there was a trend toward higher rates of tPA (tissue-type plasminogen activator) delivery (13.9%-17.7%; P=0.096) and a significant increase in tPA delivery within 45 minutes (5.7%-8.9%; P=0.042) after intervention. However, improvements in EMS recognition were limited to the first 3 months following intervention. Conclusions- A brief educational intervention was associated with improved EMS stroke recognition, hospital prenotification, and faster tPA delivery. Gains were primarily observed immediately following education and were not sustained through provision of performance feedback to paramedics.

SUBMITTER: Oostema JA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6476674 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Brief Educational Intervention Improves Emergency Medical Services Stroke Recognition.

Oostema J Adam JA Chassee Todd T Baer William W Edberg Allison A Reeves Mathew J MJ

Stroke 20190501 5

Background and Purpose- Recognition of stroke symptoms and hospital prenotification by emergency medical services (EMS) facilitate rapid stroke treatment; however, one-third of patients with stroke are unrecognized by EMS. To promote stroke recognition and quality measure compliant prehospital stroke care, we deployed a 30-minute online EMS educational module coupled with a performance feedback system in a single Michigan county. Methods- During a 24-month study period, a registry of consecutive ...[more]

PMID: 30917754

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Project description:Background and purposeAcute stroke treatment outcomes are predicated on reperfusion timeliness which can be improved by better prehospital stroke identification. We aimed to assess the effect of interactive emergency medical services (EMS) training on stroke recognition and prehospital care performance in a very high-risk cardiovascular risk population in Lithuania.MethodsWe conducted a single-center interrupted time-series study between March 1, 2019 and March 15, 2020. Two-hour small-group interactive stroke training sessions were organized for 166 paramedics serving our stroke network. We evaluated positive predictive value (PPV) and sensitivity for stroke including transient ischemic attack identification, onset-to-door time, and hospital-based outcomes during 6-months prior and 3.5 months after the training. The study outcomes were compared between EMS providers in urban and suburban areas.ResultsIn total, 677 suspected stroke cases and 239 stroke chameleons (median age 75 years, 54.8% women) were transported by EMS. After the training, we observed improved PPV for stroke recognition (79.8% vs. 71.8%, p = 0.017) and a trend of decreased in-hospital mortality (7.8% vs. 12.3, p = 0.070). Multivariable logistic regression models adjusted for age, gender, EMS location, and stroke subtype showed an association between EMS stroke training and improved odds of stroke identification (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.6 [1.1-2.3]) and onset-to-door ≤ 90 min (aOR 1.6 [1.1-2.5]). The improvement of PPV was observed in urban EMS (84.9% vs. 71.2%, p = 0.003), but not in the suburban group (75.0% vs. 72.6%, p = 0.621).ConclusionsThe interactive EMS training was associated with a robust improvement of stroke recognition, onset to hospital transport time, and a trend of decreased in-hospital mortality. Adapted training strategies may be needed for EMS providers in suburban areas. Future studies should evaluate the long-term effects of the EMS training and identify optimal retraining intervals.

Project description:Emotional Intelligence (EI) is defined as an ability to perceive another's emotional state combined with an ability to modify one's own. Physicians with this ability are at a distinct advantage, both in fostering teams and in making sound decisions. Studies have shown that higher physician EI's are associated with lower incidence of burn-out, longer careers, more positive patient-physician interactions, increased empathy, and improved communication skills. We explored the potential for EI to be learned as a skill (as opposed to being an innate ability) through a brief educational intervention with emergency medicine (EM) residents.This study was conducted at a large urban EM residency program. Residents were randomized to either EI intervention or control groups. The intervention was a two-hour session focused on improving the skill of social perspective taking (SPT), a skill related to social awareness. Due to time limitations, we used a 10-item sample of the Hay 360 Emotional Competence Inventory to measure EI at three time points for the training group: before (pre) and after (post) training, and at six-months post training (follow up); and at two time points for the control group: pre- and follow up. The preliminary analysis was a four-way analysis of variance with one repeated measure: Group x Gender x Program Year over Time. We also completed post-hoc tests.Thirty-three EM residents participated in the study (33 of 36, 92%), 19 in the EI intervention group and 14 in the control group. We found a significant interaction effect between Group and Time (p?0.05). Post-hoc tests revealed a significant increase in EI scores from Time 1 to 3 for the EI intervention group (62.6% to 74.2%), but no statistical change was observed for the controls (66.8% to 66.1%, p=0.77). We observed no main effects involving gender or level of training.Our brief EI training showed a delayed but statistically significant positive impact on EM residents six months after the intervention involving SPT. One possible explanation for this finding is that residents required time to process and apply the EI skills training in order for us to detect measurable change. More rigorous measurement will be needed in future studies to aid in the interpretation of our findings.

Project description:Background Emergency medical services (EMS) compliance with recommended prehospital care for patients with acute stroke is inconsistent; however, sources of variability in compliance are not well understood. The current analysis utilizes a linkage between a statewide stroke registry and EMS information system data to explore patient and EMS agency-level contributions to variability in prehospital care. Methods and Results This is a retrospective analysis of a cohort of confirmed stroke cases transported by EMS to hospitals participating in a statewide stroke registry. Using EMS information system data, the authors quantified EMS compliance with 6 performance measures derived from national guidelines for prehospital stroke care: prehospital stroke scale performance, glucose check, stroke recognition, on-scene time ≤15 minutes, time last known well documentation, and hospital prenotification. Multilevel multivariable logistic regression analysis was then used to examine associations between patient-level demographic and clinical characteristics and EMS compliance while accounting for and quantifying the variation attributable to agency of transport and recipient hospital. Over an 18-month period, EMS and stroke registry records were linked for 5707 EMS-transported stroke cases. Compliance ranged from 24% of cases for last known well documentation to 82% for documentation of a glucose check. The other measures were documented in approximately half of cases. Older age, higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, and earlier presentation were associated with more compliant prehospital care. EMS agencies accounted for more than half of the variation in EMS prehospital stroke scale documentation and last known well documentation and 27% of variation in glucose check but <10% of stroke recognition and prenotification variability. Conclusions EMS stroke care remains highly variable across different performance measures and EMS agencies. EMS agency and electronic medical record type are important sources of variability in compliance with key prehospital performance metrics for stroke.

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Brief Educational Intervention Improves Emergency Medical Services Stroke Recognition.

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Brief Educational Intervention Improves Emergency Medical Services Stroke Recognition.

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