There are a variety of prehospital screening tools available to help establish the presence of a stroke. These will be covered in detail in a later section. Sample forms are included in the appendix.
Establishing the time of onset of the symptoms is critical in stroke care. If the patient awakens with symptoms, the time of onset is recorded at the time the patient was last seen to be normal (without any symptoms). The patient's family members, friends, coworkers, and bystanders may be the only source of information to accurately determine the time of onset of stroke symptoms.
