Black Americans experiencing stroke symptoms face significant delays in receiving emergency care, according to a study led by researchers from the University of Michigan and Brown University. Published in Circulation, the study found that Black stroke patients take approximately 28 minutes longer to reach emergency departments compared to their white counterparts. This delay is partly due to emergency medical services (EMS) being 20% less likely to notify hospitals in advance of a Black patient’s arrival.
Dr. Regina Royan, the study’s first author and clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, emphasized the urgency of addressing these disparities. “We found that Black patients who are having a stroke are being underserved in several ways during the chain of survival,” she said. The study reviewed data from over 600,000 patients in the American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines Stroke Registry from mid-2015 through 2019.
The research also revealed that patients from counties with higher social deprivation scores, which include measures of poverty, educational attainment, and access to transportation, took longer to arrive at hospitals after displaying stroke symptoms. Hospitals in these areas were also less likely to receive prehospital notifications from EMS.
Dr. Brian Stamm, co-author and clinical instructor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School, highlighted the need for quality improvements in EMS to achieve greater health equity. “Quality improvements for EMS should be a target for stroke system redesigns,” he said.
These findings underscore the critical need for targeted interventions to improve the timeliness and quality of stroke care for Black patients, aiming to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes.
See “Black Stroke Patients Arrive Later to Hospitals, EMS Less Likely to Notify” (September 10, 2024)
