Stroke Patients And ER Delays

Hospitals are often notoriously known for slow care. Unfortunately, some emergencies may be more serious than others. Particularly for stroke patients, every minute of delay in treatment could be a loss of two million more brain cells. Now, recent findings published in the journal Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada reveal that those delays can be even longer for these patients in particular.

"Intuitively, you would imagine that having a stroke in the hospital is the best place possible, and that is just not the case," said study author Dr. Alexandra Saltman, a third year internal medicine resident at the University of Toronto, in a news release. 

For the study, researchers examined data from acute care facilities in Ontario over nine years. They also examined stroke care delivery and outcomes for two groups: those who had a stroke in the community at about 32,000 people, and those who had a stroke while already hospitalized for another reason, at about 1,000 cases.

Compared to patients who were brought into the hospital from the community, people with in-hospital strokes have to wait significantly longer from the time stroke symptoms are recognized to neuroimaging tests.

"There is evidence that people do worse when they have a stroke in the hospital, and not just because they are already sicker," Dr. Saltman concluded.