I spent most of my clinical career overseas, much of it in stroke care. One lesson sticks. In any well-run A&E in the world, the bed is the last thing the patient needs. The first thing they need is to be sorted at the door.
When the ambulance arrives at a major teaching hospital in a system that takes triage seriously, the patient is met at the door by a triage nurse running a structured scoring system. Heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen, temperature, level of consciousness, all into one number, in under five minutes.