Back to Search Start Over

Temporal trends of ambulance time intervals for suspected stroke/transient ischaemic attack (TIA) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland: a quasi-experimental study

Temporal trends of ambulance time intervals for suspected stroke/transient ischaemic attack (TIA) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland: a quasi-experimental study

Authors :
Siobhán Masterson
Áine Merwick
Conor Deasy
Patricia M. Kearney
Cathal O'Donnell
David Willis
Edel Burton
Rory Quinn
Kieran Crosbie-Staunton
Vera J.C. Mc Carthy
Claire M. Buckley
Source :
BMJ Open, Vol 14, Iss 3 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
BMJ Publishing Group, 2024.

Abstract

Objectives Time is a fundamental component of acute stroke and transient ischaemic attack (TIA) care, thus minimising prehospital delays is a crucial part of the stroke chain of survival. COVID-19 restrictions were introduced in Ireland in response to the pandemic, which resulted in major societal changes. However, current research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on prehospital care for stroke/TIA is limited to early COVID-19 waves. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on ambulance time intervals and suspected stroke/TIA call volume for adults with suspected stroke and TIA in Ireland, from 2018 to 2021.Design We conducted a secondary data analysis with a quasi-experimental design.Setting We used data from the National Ambulance Service in Ireland. We defined the COVID-19 period as ‘1 March 2020–31 December 2021’ and the pre-COVID-19 period ‘1 January 2018–29 February 2020’.Primary and secondary outcome measures We compared five ambulance time intervals: ‘allocation performance’, ‘mobilisation performance’, ‘response time’, ‘on scene time’ and ‘conveyance time’ between the two periods using descriptive and regression analyses. We also compared call volume for suspected stroke/TIA between the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods using interrupted time series analysis.Participants We included all suspected stroke/TIA cases ≥18 years who called the National Ambulance Service from 2018 to 2021.Results 40 004 cases were included: 19 826 in the pre-COVID-19 period and 20 178 in the COVID-19 period. All ambulance time intervals increased during the pandemic period compared with pre-COVID-19 (p

Subjects

Subjects :
Medicine

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20446055
Volume :
14
Issue :
3
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
BMJ Open
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.5d5df8a72d3d463897453d42f29c5bcf
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-078168