Prehospital time intervals in stroke care before and after the outbreak of COVID-19

Abstract Background A prehospital emergency medical system is essential in order to provide rapid treatment for stroke patients. After the outbreak of COVID-19, precautions and safety measures were introduced to limit the number of infections. This study analyzed the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the stroke care process in prehospital care. Methods In this retrospective study, we examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the emergency medical care of patients transported to the Kanta-Häme Central Hospital because of suspected stroke. We collected prehospital data on the emergency medical services’ time intervals of suspected stroke patients, including on-scene time and total time. Emergency medical services’ time intervals of transported suspected stroke patients 24 months before and 24 months after the outbreak of COVID-19 were compared. Results During the study period, emergency medical services transported altogether 1,226 patients with suspected stroke to the Kanta-Häme Central Hospital emergency department, 552 before and 674 after the COVID-19 outbreak. The median on-scene time of these patients was 15.38 minutes before and 15.18 minutes after the outbreak (p = 0.93). The median total emergency medical services time had remained stable between the groups, 49.59 minutes vs. 49.86 minutes (p = 0.80) respectively. Conclusions The number of suspected stroke patients increased by 22.9% after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic outbreak did not lengthen the pre-hospitalisation intervals for suspected stroke patients. These results allow us to assume that once the prehospital process of suspected stroke patients has been thoroughly reorganized, not even a serious epidemic will impair the function of emergency medical services.