It is critical that certain of these tests be obtained in a timely manner. It will be important to teach the medical staff which tests are essential and which are needed prior to considering specific treatments. Of the 500,000 strokes that occur each year in the United States, about 400,000 will be ischemic. If one assumes that the percentage of stroke patients eligible for treatment is the same as the percentage of MI patients eligible for treatment, this would mean that there would be only one eligible stroke victim for every 3.75 eligible MI patients. This indicates that we have a great need to maintain staff awareness with frequent refresher courses.
Many physicians lack extensive experience in the area of stroke management.
Ensuring quality of care for a disease entity that does not occur frequently will require extensive efforts to maintain adequate levels of awareness and to make allowances for limited experience. There needs to be a practiced management response to stroke. This can be accomplished through repetitive exercises. We may want to consider stroke team drills similar to mock codes currently used in many hospitals. These drills should review the criteria for proper patient identification, the required tests and procedures to be taken, and the preferred communications systems.