ABSTRACT
Introduction: The expansion of telemedicine associated with the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced outpatient medical care. The objective of our study was to determine the impact of telemedicine on post-acute stroke clinic follow-up. Methods: With this retrospective cohort study, we evaluated the impact of telemedicine in Emory Healthcare, an academic healthcare system of comprehensive (CSC) and primary stroke centers (PSC) in Atlanta, Georgia, on post-hospital stroke clinic follow-up. We compared the frequency of successful post-hospitalization follow-up in a centralized subspecialty stroke clinic among patients hospitalized before the local COVID-19 pandemic (January 1- February 28, 2020), during (March 1- April 30, 2020) and after telemedicine implementation (May 1- December 31, 2020). A comparison was made across network hospitals less than 1 mile (CSC) and 25 miles (PSC25) from the specialty stroke clinic. Results: Of the 553 ischemic stroke patients [median age 68 years (IQR 58-79), median NIHSS 4 (IQR 1-8)] discharged home or to a rehab facility during the study period, 241 (43.6%) had follow-up in the Emory Stroke Clinic (CSC=48%, PSC25=23%). Overall, 90-day follow-up increased from 31% before to 48% after telemedicine implementation. Similarly, telemedicine appointments increased from 19% to 72% of the follow-up visits. The increase in follow-up visits was modest among CSC patients, from 41% to 51% (p=0.16), relative to the increase among PSC25 patients (5.3% to 31%, p=0.002). Conclusions: Telemedicine implementation at an academic healthcare network successfully increased post-stroke discharge follow-up in a centralized subspecialty stroke clinic for hospitalized patients up to 25 miles from the clinic site. However, more work is required to facilitate follow up in the majority of patients.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Studies have shown worse outcomes in patients with comorbid ischemic stroke (IS) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but have had small sample sizes. METHODS: We retrospectively identified patients in the Vizient Clinical Data Base R with IS as a discharge diagnosis. The study outcomes were in-hospital death and favorable discharge (home or acute rehabilitation). In the primary analysis, we compared IS patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 (IS-COVID) discharged April 1-July 31, 2020 to pre-COVID IS patients discharged in 2019 (IS controls). In a secondary analysis, we compared a matched cohort of IS-COVID patients to patients within the IS controls who had pneumonia (IS-PNA), created with inverse-probability-weighting (IPW). RESULTS: In the primary analysis, we included 166,586 IS controls and 2086 IS-COVID from 312 hospitals in 46 states. Compared to IS controls, IS-COVID were less likely to have hypertension, dyslipidemia, or be smokers, but more likely to be male, younger, have diabetes, obesity, acute renal failure, acute coronary syndrome, venous thromboembolism, intubation, and comorbid intracerebral or subarachnoid hemorrhage (all p<0.05). Black and Hispanic patients accounted for 21.7% and 7.4% of IS controls, respectively, but 33.7% and 18.5% of IS-COVID (p<0.001). IS-COVID, versus IS controls, were less likely to receive alteplase (1.8% vs 5.6%, p<0.001), mechanical thrombectomy (4.4% vs. 6.7%, p<0.001), to have favorable discharge (33.9% vs. 66.4%, p<0.001), but more likely to die (30.4% vs. 6.5%, p<0.001). In the matched cohort of patients with IS-COVID and IS-PNA, IS-COVID had a higher risk of death (IPW-weighted OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.33-1.82) and lower odds of favorable discharge (IPW-weighted OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.54-0.73). CONCLUSIONS: Ischemic stroke patients with COVID-19 are more likely to be male, younger, and Black or Hispanic, with significant increases in morbidity and mortality compared to both ischemic stroke controls from 2019 and to patients with ischemic stroke and pneumonia.