Stroke or heart attack: First encounters with pre-hospital care

This paper reports on a qualitative study that appears to have been motivated, in part, by a need to develop patient reported experience measures (PREMs) suitable for use in pre-hospital care. It is a valuable addition to our understanding of both patients' and clinicians' experiences of pre-hospital care for individuals with suspected stroke or acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

To be eligible for inclusion in the study, patients had to have experienced emergency ambulance service care for either a suspected stroke or AMI in the previous 12 months. All participants were given the option of participating in a focus group or an individual interview (five ambulance staff opted for a focus group). It would be interesting to know why the researchers offered a choice and whether they found a difference in the type and/or nature of data collected between the different methods.

Overall, the authors state that 22 patients and 17 ambulance staff (total 39) were recruited to the study. However, there is a slight discrepancy in the abstract where it is reported that 33 semi-structured interviews were undertaken plus one focus group with five clinicians, making a total of 38 participants.