OBJECTIVE: To investigate delays in the presentation to hospital and evaluation of @entity1 with suspected @entity64 . DESIGN: Multicentre prospective observational study. SETTING: 22 hospitals in the United Kingdom and Dublin. @entity1 : 739 @entity1 with suspected @entity64 presenting to hospital. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Time from onset of @entity64 symptoms to arrival at hospital, and time from arrival to evaluation by a senior doctor. RESULTS: The median age of @entity1 was 75 years, and 400 were @entity1 . The median delay between onset of symptoms and arrival at hospital was 6 hours (interquartile range 1 hour 48 minutes to 19 hours 12 minutes). 37% of @entity1 arrived within 3 hours, 50% within 6 hours. The median delay for @entity1 using the emergency service was 2 hours 3 minutes (47 minutes to 7 hours 12 minutes) compared with 7 hours 12 minutes (2 hours 5 minutes to 20 hours 37 minutes) for referrals from general practitioners (P<0.0001). Use of emergency services reduced delays to hospital (odds ratio 0.45, 95% confidence interval 0.23 to 0.61). The median time to evaluation by a senior doctor was 1 hour 9 minutes (interquartile range 33 minutes to 1 hour 50 minutes) but was undertaken in only 477 (65%) @entity1 within 3 hours of arrival. This was not influenced by age, sex, time of presentation, mode of referral, hospital type, or the presence of a @entity64 unit. Computed tomography was requested within 3 hours of arrival in 166 (22%) @entity1 but undertaken in only 60 (8%). CONCLUSION: Delays in @entity1 arriving at hospital with suspected @entity64 can be reduced by the increased use of emergency services. Over a third of @entity1 arrive at hospital within three hours of @entity64 ; their management can be improved by expediting medical evaluation and performing computed tomography early.

A multicentre observational study of presentation and early assessment of acute XXXX .

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['PARTICIPANTS', 'patients', 'women'] @entity64 :: ('MESH:D020521', 'Disease') :: ['stroke']
@entity64 :: (MESH:D020521,Disease) :: ['stroke']
