Feasibility of a hyper-acute stroke unit model of care across England: a modelling analysis.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES:The policy of centralising hyperacute stroke units (HASUs) in England aims to provide stroke care in units that are both large enough to sustain expertise (>600 admissions/year) and dispersed enough to rapidly deliver time-critical treatments (<30 min maximum travel time). Currently, just over half (56%) of patients with stroke access care in such a unit. We sought to model national configurations of HASUs that would optimise both institutional size and geographical access to stroke care, to maximise the population benefit from the centralisation of stroke care. DESIGN:Modelling of the effect of the national reconfiguration of stroke services. Optimal solutions were identified using a heuristic genetic algorithm. SETTING:127 acute stroke services in England, serving a population

SUBMITTER: Allen M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5736033 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature