Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Prehospital redirection of stroke patients to a regional center is used as a strategy to maximize the provision of intravenous thrombolysis. We developed a model to quantify the benefit of redirection away from local services that were already providing thrombolysis. METHODS: A microsimulation using hospital and ambulance data from consecutive emergency admissions to 10 local acute stroke units estimated the effect of redirection to 2 regional neuroscience centers. Modeled outcomes reflected additional journey time and accuracy of stroke identification in the prehospital phase, and the relative efficiency of patient selection and door-needle time for each local site compared with the nearest regional neuroscience center. RESULTS: Thrombolysis was received by 223/1884 emergency admissions. Based on observed site performance, 68 additional patients would have been treated after theoretical redirection of 1269 true positive cases and 363 stroke mimics to the neuroscience center. Over 5 years redirection of this cohort generated 12.6 quality-adjusted life years at a marginal cost of £6730 ($10,320, €8347). The average additional cost of a quality-adjusted life year gain was £534 ($819, €673). CONCLUSIONS: Under these specific circumstances, redirection would have improved outcomes from thrombolysis at little additional cost.

Original publication

DOI

10.1161/STROKEAHA.113.001240

Type

Journal article

Journal

Stroke

Publication Date

11/2013

Volume

44

Pages

3114 - 3119

Keywords

healthcare economics and organizations, probabilistic models, stroke, thrombolysis, therapeutic, Aged, Databases, Factual, Emergency Medicine, England, Female, Health Care Costs, Hospital Units, Hospitals, Special, Humans, Infusions, Intravenous, Male, Models, Economic, Outcome Assessment (Health Care), Patient Admission, Patient Selection, Quality-Adjusted Life Years, Regional Medical Programs, Stroke, Thrombolytic Therapy, Time Factors, Tissue Plasminogen Activator