Team care improves stroke outcomes

Randomized trials have shown that organized care of stroke patients by a coordinated multidisciplinary team working together in a stroke unit improves outcomes. In this issue of CMAJ, Dr. Stephen Phillips and colleagues describe the Acute Stroke Unit at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax and compare their success from 1997 through 2000 with the outcomes of stroke survivors during the 4 years before the unit was established.

They report that care in the Acute Stroke Unit led to a statistically significant reduction in length of stay (at a saving of $2.1 million annually per 1000 patients treated) and to a reduction in the incidence of deep vein thrombosis.

In a related commentary, Dr. Michael Hill stresses the benefits of stroke units and multidisciplinary stroke teams and urges other centres to follow the Halifax example.

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p. 649 Stroke units in Canada -- M.D. Hill

p. 655 Description and evaluation of an acute stroke unit -- S.J. Phillips et al

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