Time Indicators of Pre-hospital Emergency Services in Stroke Patients of Fars/ Iran

Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the most common disease of old age. Pre-hospital care time is very important in these patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the status of time indices of pre-hospital emergency services in stroke patients of Fars province.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed from March 2018 to December 2018. Medical files of 327 stroke patients received emergency cares by Emergency 115 were selected through census sampling and reviewed. Data gathering tool was a checklist and data were analyzed through SPSS20 software package.

Stroke patients comprised 0.2% of all emergency 115 patients. Among stroke patients, 51% were men and 80% were elderly. From all, 88.7% were transferred to the hospital, 11% received urgent care in place and one patient had died. Among the studied cases, 32% had a history of stroke, 41% had high blood pressure and 8% had heart disease. The mean time of transforming stroke patients to the hospital was 37 minutes from the first calling of Emergency 115. For other transferred patients, mean times of transferring by ambulance and Air Emergency were respectively 52 and 38 minutes.

Monitoring the performance of Emergency Technicians reduces service time and the rate of mortality and morbidity of stroke patients. By screening for health and increasing public awareness in the field of health, mortality and disability can be prevented in these patients.