Research has shown that patients who suffer a stroke while hospitalized for another reason have worse outcomes than patients receiving treatment on the ward emergency department (ED). There are many reasons for this, including sicker patients, more severe strokes, less adherence to process-based quality measures, and lack of a response team. Improving stroke response and treatment time at Hospital A by including a physician in the rapid response team is the focus of this article. According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's About Stroke (2014), “stroke is the number four leading cause of death and leading cause of disability among adults in the United States” (para.1). On average, a stroke occurs every 40 seconds in the United States (Impact of Stroke, para. 1). Approximately 4-17% of all stroke patients experience symptoms while hospitalized (Cumbler et al., 2014). This represents approximately 35,000 to 75,000 in-hospital strokes in the United States each year. Although there is no cure for stroke, there are treatments available if done within a specific time frame. For example, there is a clot-busting medication known as t-PA that should be administered within 3 to 4.5 hours of the last known period (Stroke Treatments, 2013). Additionally, mechanical interventions are available for stroke patients. The sooner stroke symptoms are recognized and the patient receives treatment, the better the outcomes for these patients (Stroke Treatments, 2013). Studies have shown that people who experience stroke while hospitalized have worse outcomes than if they arrived from the community to the ED (Cumbler, Zaemisch, Graves, Brega, Jones, 2012). There are several reasons for this, including the increase...... middle of document ......st was accessed4. Using the defined stroke order5. Patient OutcomesA new stroke flowsheet in the electronic health record will capture much of the necessary data. This flowchart was under development prior to the start of this project and is intended to be used for all stroke calls, either to the emergency room or hospital. The origin of the call will help identify strokes in the emergency room and hospital. In summary, Hospital A will implement a new process for responding to stroke calls to the hospital. This new process will improve the quality of outcomes for stroke patients in hospital. There are no additional costs involved in implementing this process. Data will be collected and reported for the stroke measures described previously. Through research into this project, additional training opportunities were identified. Hospital A will further explore these opportunities in the future.