ADDING an emergency medicine pharmacist to stroke call-out teams can help cut the average time to administer treatment to a patient by 12 minutes, a study by researchers from Monash University reveals.
The authors noted an audit conducted by the Australian Stroke Foundation in 2019 found approximately 30% of patients in Australia receive thrombolysis in accordance with the guidelines, which recommend it should be provided within 60 minutes of arrival at hospital.
Alfred Hospital Emergency Medicine Lead Pharmacist and Monash Univeristy PhD candidate, Cristina Roman, said that prior to the redesign of the acute stroke response system in Jul 2014, she had regularly been asked to assist with double-checking thrombolysis doses due to the high-risk nature of the medication and the infrequency of administration.
The study - published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics - included data relating to patients who presented at a major referral hospital in Melbourne during emergency medicine pharmacist working hours and were thrombolysed in the emergency department for stroke between Dec 2011 and Jun 2014 (before the redesign of the response system), compared with those admitted between Jul 2014 and Aug 2019.
Roman found that the median "door to needle time" reduced from 73 minutes in the pre-redesign cohort, to 61 minutes in the post-redesign group.
Monash University Department of Neuroscience Stroke Group Lead and Alfred Hospital Stroke Clinic Head, Professor Geoff Cloud, noted that emergency medicine pharmacists were not commonly involved in the management of critically unwell patients in Australia, despite clinical pharmacy being a "flourishing area of practice elsewhere".
"[Emergency medicine pharmacists'] value as medication experts allows clinicians to focus on assessment and diagnosis of stroke and add to the efficiency and accuracy of care provided," he said.
Meanwhile researchers from Monash University said they intended to conduct further research to explore the direct impact and cost-effectiveness of 24-hour emergency medicine pharmacists attending stroke calls.
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