THE VALUED VOICE

With current guidelines emphasizing delivery of intravenous treatment for stroke patients within 60 minutes of hospital arrival, Froedtert sought to reduce this arrival-to-treatment time to 30 minutes. A multidisciplinary team was established to analyze the process and steps needed from emergency department physician assessment, to activating the stroke team, to placing orders, obtaining CT scans and labs, to treatment. Froedtert used a tracking feedback tool for consistent timekeeping and to diagram a workable and efficient, streamlined process. As a result, Froedtert decreased the average door-to-needle time to less than 30 minutes, which may improve outcomes for stroke patients. 

This project is important for patient safety because early delivery of intravenous alteplase saves brain cells. Up to 1.9 million brain cells are lost for each minute the brain is not perfused. By saving more neurons, function and recovery may also be facilitated.

In this initiative, we shared the unified vision of keeping the patient as the focus, so silos of care were effectively eliminated, and true teamwork was experienced.

See the poster presentation here.