Impact of an ED pharmacist on time to thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke
Prior studies showed that incorporation of ED pharmacists within ED clinical teams lead to more rapid treatment of trauma, stroke, and STEMI.
A recent retrospective study conducted by Montgomery et al. showed that having an ED pharmacist on the stroke alert team increased the number of patients meeting goal door-to-needle time of 60 minutes.
Answer
This retrospective study compared the number of patients meeting goal door-to-needle (DTN) time of 60 minutes with and without an ED pharmacist participating on the stroke alert team.
A higher proportion of patients with an ED pharmacist met goal DTN time of 60 minutes (71% vs. 39%, p=0.002, 95% CI 0.10-0.50).
Patients with an ED pharmacist had an average 20-minute decrease in door-to-needle time (p=0.004, 95% CI 6.6-33.4).
References
Montgomery K, Hall AB, Keriazes G. Impact of an emergency medicine pharmacist on time to thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke. Am J Emerg Med 2016;34:1997-9.
