Access to hyperacute stroke services across Canadian provinces: a geospatial analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Canada's vast geography creates challenges for ensuring prompt transport to hospital of patients who have had a stroke. We sought to determine the proportion of people across various Canadian provinces for whom hyperacute stroke services are accessible within evidence-based time targets.

Methods

We calculated, for the 8 provinces with available data, drive-time polygons on a map of Canada that delineated the area around stroke centres and emergency medical services (EMS) base centres to which one can drive in 3.5-6 hours. We calculated the proportional area of each forward sortation area (first 3 digits of the postal code) contained within a drive-time polygon. We applied this ratio to the 2011 Canadian census population of the forward sortation area to estimate t

SUBMITTER: Eswaradass PV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5510287 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature