• Amin Aghaebrahim, Manuel F Granja, Guilherme J Agnoletto, Pedro Aguilar-Salinas, Gustavo M Cortez, Roberta Santos, Andre Monteiro, Wendy Camp, Jason Day, Scott Dellorso, Neeraj Naval, Mohamad Chmayssani, Richard Stromberg, Matthew C Rill, Eric Sauvageau, and Ricardo Hanel.
• Baptist Neurological Institute, Lyerly Neurosurgery/Baptist Health, Jacksonville, Florida, USA. Electronic address: Amin.Aghaebrahim@bmcjax.com.
• World Neurosurg. 2019 Sep 1; 129: e273-e278.

BackgroundWe analyzed the effect of specific optimization steps to reduce treatment delays in a nonacademic stroke hospital setting.MethodsThe data from patients with ischemic stroke who had been treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator or endovascular therapy, or both, were analyzed. The metrics were divided into 2 periods: preoptimization period (October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016) and postoptimization period (October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017). The key interventions were 1) notification by the emergency medical service to the emergency department and stroke team; 2) division of the stroke alert between level 1 (intravenous/intra-arterial candidate) and level 2; 3) direct transportation of level 1 patients to brain computed tomography; 4) limitation of nonessential interventions; 5) stroke orientation; 6) 24-hour, 7-day code stroke response by a vascular neurologist; 7) earlier notification of the interventional radiology team; 8) direct transportation from computed tomography to angiography suite for large vessel occlusion; and 9) multidisciplinary monthly meetings to discuss delayed cases.ResultsA total of 279 patients were identified. No significant differences in any of the baseline characteristics were documented. Almost all metrics favored the postoptimization period, with remarkable improvement in the door-to-puncture time (median, 64 minutes; interquartile range, 36-86; vs. 47 minutes; interquartile range, 20-62; P = 0.001). We observed an increased percentage of good clinical outcomes in the postoptimization group (60.1% vs. 54.8%; P = 0.500). We found an 8.4% increase in patients with good clinical outcomes in the postoptimization group compared with our previously reported work.ConclusionsFor acute reperfusion therapies, significant reductions in workflow intervals can be achieved after simple optimization methods in a nonacademic community-based hospital.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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