Abstract TP339: Operations Director, Neurosciences Clinical Program, Intermountain Healthcare

Abstract

Introduction: Beginning January 2014, a 245-bed Intermountain Healthcare primary stroke center was using a private Telestroke (SOC) service. On April 1, 2015, Intermountain implemented its own centralized, internal Telestroke service to provide coverage at this primary stroke center and five other hospitals. The Intermountain Telestroke service uses an internal telemedicine platform with employed physicians providing coverage. To clarify, the Intermountain system has a physician answer calls directly; the SOC model uses an intermediary before connecting to the physician. Hypothesis: Implementation of a centralized, internal Telestroke service will result in improved physician response and improved time to treatment compared to the private service. Methods: The Intermountain Healthcare enterprise data warehouse and SOC summary reports provided the data for this analysis. Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was used to compare physician response time, DTN time, and door to CT time in patients treated during the 15-month SOC era to patients treated by the in house telestroke service. Results: From Jan 2014-Mar 2015, 27 patients received IV TPA at the facility, but only 2/27 had door to needle (DTN) time of <60m. The median DTN time in 2014 was 84 min and the median door to CT time was 18 min, strongly suggesting that the neurologist response time of this service was too long to meet AHA standards. Since implementing the Intermountain service, there has been a statistically significant improvement in DTN time. During the SOC time period, the median DTN time was 92.5 min (N = 35). After implementation, the Intermountain service provided a significantly lower median DTN time of 62.5 min (N=4; p = 0.03). The SOC median technician call-back time was 9.2 min (N=85), with an average physician video response time of 32 min (N=79). Intermountain median physician response time is 4 min (N=91). The door to CT time was not significantly different (Jan 2014-March 2015 was 18 min. vs Mar-May 2015, 14 min, N=31). Conclusions: The Intermountain Telestroke service outperformed SOC in response time and times to treatment. For healthcare systems that have the resources and expertise, an internal Telestroke service may result in faster times to treatment and better patient outcomes.