Andalucía emergency services advance stroke triage and public first aid training

Researchers from the Centro de Emergencias Sanitarias 061 de Andalucía and the Fundación Progreso y Salud have completed a major European study regarding telephone triage for patients suspected of having a stroke. The retrospective multicenter study analyzed nearly 44,000 calls made to eight provincial centers between 2020 and 2024 to evaluate the GTTA54 protocol, a six-step guide designed to identify potential strokes during emergency calls.

The study, which was recognized as one of the top 10 presentations at the 36th National Congress of the Spanish Society of Emergency and Urgent Medicine, demonstrated that the structured protocol increased diagnostic sensitivity and significantly reduced undertriage cases. The results showed that the protocol improved the identification of patients requiring priority care without increasing overtriage rates.

In a separate initiative, the 061 Emergency Center has also focused on community training. During the first half of the year, the center provided basic first aid training to 6,731 people across Andalucía, including over 100 youths in Málaga. These training sessions, which included direct instruction on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), aim to increase public awareness of emergency response and the importance of the survival chain.