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.

Additional Information

• 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.

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