Dispatchers can spot stroke over the phone using speech and balance checks. Label positives as stroke alert to trigger scoop-and-run response and hospital notification. Keeping patients from eating, drinking, or walking before arrival cuts time to treatment and reduces brain damage.
Hi, I'd like to talk about the stroke and CVA EMD card. You'll notice that we are now including a pre arrival stroke screen. And this is critically important because this really impacts the times of definitive care for these folks. And just like in a heart attack where time really determines whether somebody's going to survive or have disability from a heart attack, time also determines whether somebody is going to survive or have permanent disability from a stroke. And you all as a dispatcher can play a really important role in that. Studies have shown that you over the phone have the ability to detect a stroke that is as accurate, if not more accurate than a paramedic doing a stroke evaluation on scene. And the important thing is you can do that before our paramedics even arrive by using this screen here that talks about speech and balance, et cetera. So any positives on your stroke screen, please call it a stroke alert. Call the crews, let them know that you suspect a stroke alert. So then the crews know that this is going to be a scoop and run case, kind of like we do with our trauma alerts for our heart attack patients. And then we can pre arrival give pre arrival notification to the hospitals. And all of that has been shown in scientific studies to drastically decrease the 911 call to definitive treatment time, which saves brain in these stroke patients. In addition to critical diagnoses like stroke. Those pre arrival instructions are really important. Many of these folks are going to be getting some sort of operative procedure, perhaps brain catheterization, and we really don't want them to eat or drink before they arrive. We, we also don't want them walking around if they've had a stroke because even if they can walk at the moment you're speaking to them, they may suddenly lose either consciousness or balance or get weakness in a leg and could fall and then add trauma to the situation, make it worse. So please continue to follow those pre arrival instructions as well as the stroke screen and understand everything you are doing is critically important to the success of our mission. Thank you so.
Melissa Olen MSN, FPN-C, CCRN: Sudden Cardiac Arrest Training in Schools (Project ADAM) 4/25/25
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