Details Are Important: Communicating Effectively About Stroke Patients

This is a FREE webinar presentation hosted by Mercy Flight Central. The Zoom link will be sent to the email provided during registration prior to the day of the presentation.

Please retain the registration ticket and the below information for CME credit purposes. Please submit any questions or inquiries via email to MYelton@mercyflightcentral.org.

Instructor Biography

Maia Dorsett MD PhD is an Emergency Medicine and EMS Physician at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She completed both her residency in Emergency Medicine and her fellowship in EMS at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She has a strong interest in EMS Education and serves as the Medical Director for EMS Education Programs at Monroe Community College and Chair of the Education Committee for the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) where she also serves as the chief editor of the association Open-Access educational blog and is a member of the Prehospital Emergency Care Podcast Team.

Presentation Summary

As we all know, stroke is a time-critical diagnosis. Patient eligibility for therapy is time-dependent as is the potential benefit of intervention. Many stroke patients will enter the healthcare system through EMS. The information gathered by EMS providers impacts not only which hospital the patient might go to, but what happens once the patient arrives at their destination. In this session, we will review the critical details that should be gathered, how to effectively convey this information, and how this information impacts patient eligibility for an expanding number of stroke therapies.

Presentation outline:

1. Review current patient eligibility criteria for various stroke therapies and how these may effect transport decisions.
2. Identify the critical pieces of patient history and exam that need to be conveyed to the hospital clinicians to help them make appropriate clinical decisions for stroke patients.
3. Review questioning techniques to more accurately identify time of “last known well”.
4. Discuss methods for clear and effective hospital prenotification and patient handoff.

Learning objectives:

1. Describe the relationship between patient eligibility for tPA or endovascular intervention and evidence-based medicine.
2. Recognize the key role of the EMS assessment within the stroke system of care and improving the functional outcomes of stroke patients.
3. List the key components of the EMS history and physical that determine patient eligibility for tPA or endovascular intervention.

CME Credit: 2.0 Hours, Neurological Emergencies/Assessment/Management