RSM logo
Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare

Home Current issue Browse archive Alerts About the journal Feedback
 
J Telemed Telecare 2009;15:260-263
doi:10.1258/jtt.2009.090102
© 2009 Royal Society of Medicine Press

This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Pedragosa, A.
Right arrow Articles by Ribo, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

RESEARCH

Original articles

Impact of a telemedicine system on acute stroke care in a community hospital

Àngels Pedragosa * ** , José Alvarez-Sabin {dagger} **, Carlos A Molina {dagger} **, Carmen Sanclemente {ddagger}, M Cruz Martín §, Francisco Alonso * and Marc Ribo {dagger} **


* Department of Internal Medicine, Consorci Hospitalari de Vic, Barcelona; {dagger} Stroke Unit, Department of Neurology, Hospital de la Vall d'Hebrón Barcelona; {ddagger} Cardiovascular Risk Unit, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, Barcelona; § Emergency Department, Consorci Hospitalari de Vic, Barcelona; ** Departament de Medicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

Correspondence: Àngels Pedragosa, Department of Internal Medicine, Consorci Hospitalari de Vic, C/Francesc Plà ‘el Vigatà’ sn, 08500 VIC, Barcelona, Spain (Fax: +34 93 838 8854; Email: apedragosa{at}chv.cat)

In January 2007, a telestroke system was established between a community hospital lacking a neurologist on call and a stroke centre 70 km away. The telestroke system allowed urgent remote evaluation of the patient by a specialized neurologist, supervised thrombolytic treatment or a decision for urgent transfer to the stroke centre. During the first year of operation of the telestroke system, we studied all acute ischaemic stroke patients admitted to the community hospital and compared the results with the previous year. Approximately the same number of acute stroke patients were admitted to the community hospital in each year (201 cases in 2006 and 198 in 2007). The telestroke system was activated 75 times in 2007, the number of stroke patients evaluated by a specialized neurologist increased (17% vs. 38%, P > 0.001) and interhospital transfers were reduced (17% vs. 6%, P = 0.001). The number of thrombolytic treatments was doubled: 4.5% (n = 9) in 2006 vs. 9.6% (n = 19, 12 of them in the community hospital) in 2007 (P = 0.073). The telestroke system also reduced the time to tPA treatment from symptom onset (210 vs. 162 min, P = 0.05) and increased the number of patients treated in the 0–3 hours window (40% vs. 63%, P = 0.09). Telemedicine improved the quality of care administered to acute stroke patients admitted to a community hospital and reduced the number of inter-hospital transfers.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?





  RSM Press eJournals Collection 2010