An in-hospital stroke is a stroke that occurs during hospitalisation in an already admitted patient. Research has determined that patients who have a stroke while in-hospital have a worse outcome than patients who suffer an out of hospital stroke. 

Grampians Health’s Casey Hair, Victorian Stroke Telemedicine (VST) site-coordinator, is looking to tackle this issue with a team of researchers. 

“The aim of this study is to identify people at-risk for suffering in-hospital strokes, and from this, to understand how to guide hospital policy, education, and practice to mitigate as much risk for these patients as possible,” said Ms Hair. 

Studies from the UK, Sweden and Korea have analysed characteristics, management, and outcomes of in-hospital stroke patients. While a study like this has not necessarily been conducted in Australia, an analysis of in-hospital stroke and long-term outcomes when treated under a stroke unit vs another admitted unit has been accomplished over the last decade. 

“By looking at the data of research studies conducted around the world, we can bring together all the information to find commonalities about risk-factors for in-hospital stroke. This can be used to help us treat our patients to hopefully reduce their risk of stroke while also alerting staff to these patients to monitor them more closely,” Ms Hair said. 

It’s important to react quickly when someone is suffering stroke symptoms, and being able to recognise that a patient is at higher risk of suffering a stroke while admitted will help the patient’s long-term outcomes. 

“There is a gap in our knowledge in Australia about patients at risk of in-hospital stroke. With this, we can better understand our patient cohort and guide our hospitals policies and practices for stroke to provide more streamlined, and evidence-based, care for our patients,” said Ms Hair. 

Former Grampians Health Junior Medical Doctor, Dr Matthew Heard, started this project in early 2024 with a team of researchers who are now continuing the project under the guidance of Ms Hair. 

“We’re very lucky to be undertaking this important research here. Matt kicked off this project for us and got us very far along before moving to another health service. We’re grateful that his leadership got us most of the way through the research and we can continue to help patients now and into the future,” Ms Hair said. 

“With the work that Matt and our team have put in, we’re hoping this project could be expanded to understand the patients who could be at risk of in-hospital stroke nationally,” Ms Hair said.