Stroke Alerts in the Pediatric Emergency Department?

Pediatric strokes are rare, and the diagnosis is often delayed. To determine whether implementation of a stroke alert system improved time metrics, researchers reviewed charts of patients who presented to the emergency department (ED) of an academic children's hospital with acute stroke symptoms and were evaluated by the stroke service during 2.5 years before (14 patients) and 2.5 years after (68 patients) implementation.

There were no significant differences between the two groups in median time from ED arrival to evaluation by an emergency physician or a neurologist. The median time from arrival to neuroimaging with magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance angiography (the primary outcome) was faster after implementation (82 minut…