PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
13-Feb-2014
Contact: Carrie Thacker carrie.thacker@heart.org 214-706-1665 American Heart Association
Four out of five people in the United States live within an hour's drive of a hospital equipped to treat acute stroke yet very few get recommended treatment, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2014.
Of the more than 370,000 Medicare stroke claims for 2011 that researchers examined:
These treatments are most likely available at designated stroke centers, where a team of providers are trained to quickly diagnose and treat strokes.
"If a patient suspects they are having a stroke, they need to call 9-1-1 immediately and get to the nearest stroke center as soon as possible, which might mean bypassing another hospital that isn't set up to deliver the necessary therapy," said Opeolu Adeoye, M.D., M.S., the study's lead author and associate professor of emergency medicine and neurosurgery at the University of Cincinnati.
"We strongly suggest that patients go to the hospital by ambulance, that they or whoever is with them ask to go to a stroke center and ask for tPA." The study found that within an hour's driving time:
Within an hour by air:
In 2011, 60 percent of U.S. hospitals didn't administer tPA. These hospitals discharged about 1 in 5 of all stroke patients.
Follow this link:
Most people have access to stroke care, but few get recommended treatment