Appropriateness, safety, and effectiveness of “drip and ship” teleconsultation model in Southeastern Tuscany: a feasibility study

Purpose: Teleconsultation is a consultation between two or more physicians about the diagnostic work-up and therapeutic strategy in the treatment of an individual case by means of modern telematics. ‘Drip-and-ship’ teleconsultation model consists of the transfer of patients, through telematics stroke networks, with large arteries occlusions from primary to comprehensive stroke centers equipped for endovascular therapy. We retrospectively investigated appropriateness, safety, and effectiveness of ‘drip-and-ship’ teleconsultation model in a rural area of Tuscany. Methods: Outcome measures were: door-to-ship time (including door-to-needle time), ratio of number treated/total sent patients, adverse events/mortality during transfer, and mortality and modified Rankin scale at 90 days. Analysis of non-treated patients was also done. Results: Seventy-eight patients were included; 16/78 patients were sent for endovascular therapy alone, and 62/78 for “drip-and-ship”; 12 patients were not treated. Door-to-ship, and door-to-needle times (mean ± SD) were 105 ± 29.8 and 62.5 ± 37.5 min, respectively. The ratio number of treated/total sent patients was 0.85. At 90 days, the global mortality rate was 21%, and 40% of patients showed favorable outcome. The main cause of non-treatment was spontaneous recanalization. Conclusions: The high value for treated/total sent patients’ ratio underlines that “drip-and-ship” teleconsultation model is appropriate and effective, with a few untreated patients. The model is safe, without adverse events during transfer. Taken together, our outcomes are in line with the previous reports. “Drip-and-ship” teleconsultation model is safe and effective in rural areas, allowing good selections and rapid treatments for stroke patients, based on the transfer from the primary to the comprehensive stroke center.