Abstract 206: Expansion Of Emergency Medical Services Routing For Stroke In The United States

Background: Organized stroke systems of care include preferential emergency medical services (EMS) routing to deliver suspected stroke patients to designated hospitals. EMS transport of stroke patients is regulated at the State and County level in the United States (US). We aimed to characterize the growth of EMS regional systems of acute stroke care by describing the number and proportion of nationwide stroke hospitalizations in areas with EMS systems of care over a 10-year period. Methods: Data on ischemic stroke using ICD-9 coding was collected from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database from the years 2000-2010. The NIS contains all discharge data from 1,051 hospitals located in 45 States, approximating a 20-percent stratified sample. Data on EMS systems of care was obtained from a review of archives, reports, and interviews with state EMS officials. NIS hospital data is not reported at the county level in the state of Texas. Thus although Harris county ...