Background and purpose
We developed and tested a triage system to accelerate the interpretation of stroke head computed tomographies (CTs), with the goal of optimizing the time available for acute stroke therapy.
Materials and methods
In our practice, acute stroke protocol head CTs have been given the highest reading priority. We implemented a technologically enabled prioritization infrastructure to consistently present these critical cases to our radiologists so they are evaluated before other examinations. In our 1-year retrospective multicenter study of 350,495 head CT examinations, we compared the reading time of stroke protocol head CTs to our next highest priority head CT.
Results
Our average acute stroke head CT reading turnaround time was 6.5 minutes. This represented a 17.3-minute improvement over the next highest priority head CT in our practice (confidence interval: 17.2-17.4 minutes, P < .001).
Conclusions
A technologically enabled acute stroke protocol CT triage system consistently improves the reading times of critically time-dependent head CT examinations. As a result, this system has the potential to improve treatment times, treatment eligibility, and clinical outcomes.
