E-Mail Is an Effective Tool for Rapid Feedback in Acute Stroke.

To determine whether e-mail is a useful mechanism to provide prompt, case-specific data feedback and improve door-to-needle (DTN) time for acute ischemic stroke treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (IV-tPA) in the emergency department (ED) at a high-volume academic stroke center. We instituted a quality improvement project at Columbia University Medical Center where clinical details are shared via e-mail with the entire treatment team after every case of IV-tPA administration in the ED. Door-to-needle and component times were compared between the prefeedback (January 2013 to March 2015) and postfeedback intervention (April 2015 to June 2016) periods. A total of 273 cases were included in this analysis, 102 (37%) in the postintervention period. Median door-to-stroke code activation (2 vs 0 minutes, P < .01), door-to-CT Scan (21 vs 18 minutes, P < .01), and DTN (54 vs 49 minutes, P = .17) times were shorter in the postintervention period, although the latter did not reach statistical significance. The proportion of cases with the fastest DTN (≤45 minutes) was higher in the postintervention period (29.2% vs 42.2%, P = .03). E-mail is a simple and effective tool to provide rapid feedback and promote interdisciplinary communication to improve acute stroke care in the ED.

Citation

Sara K Rostanski, Joshua I Stillman, Lauren R Schaff, Crismely A Perdomo, Ava L Liberman, Eliza C Miller, Randolph S Marshall, Joshua Z Willey, Olajide Williams. E-Mail Is an Effective Tool for Rapid Feedback in Acute Stroke. The Neurohospitalist. 2017 Oct;7(4):159-163

PMID: 28974993

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