Specialist pre-hospital redirection for ischaemic stroke thrombectomy (SPEEDY): a cluster randomised controlled trial with included health economic and process evaluations
Suspected and confirmed acute stroke
This research study is a multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial with included health economic and process evaluations. The intervention to be evaluated is a new pathway which involves communication between ambulance and specialist hospital staff to select patients for direct admission to a specialist regional hospital who are likely to need emergency thrombectomy treatment. Clusters will be ambulance stations (work bases for ambulance practitioners) or ambulance staff teams which prior to the start of the study will be assigned at random to use the new pathway or to continue with current standard care when attending suspected stroke patients.
1. An ambulance practitioner from a randomised station/team attended the incident 2. Conveyance was to either a local stroke hospital which refers patients to the participating specialist regional hospital, or directly to the participating specialist regional hospital 3. Acute stroke was suspected by the attending ambulance practitioner (i.e. Face, Arm, Speech Test (FAST) positive or any observed new focal neurological symptoms which indicated acute stroke according to the ambulance practitioner’s clinical judgement) OR acute stroke was diagnosed following arrival at a participating hospital irrespective of ambulance practitioner initial judgement of symptom cause
Does not meet the inclusion criteria