The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) formally recognized nine hospitals for excellence in stroke care performance at the Clinton Presidential Center.
The ADH awards are based on hospital performance as documented in the Arkansas Stroke Registry between July of 2017 and June of 2018. They are given to hospitals for providing defect-free stroke care. Defect-free care is an aggregated metric based on the 10 American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) Coverdell performance measures in the Get with the Guidelines®-Stroke Patient Management Tool. These measures are benchmarked according to the standards of evidence-based stroke care guidelines to ensure stroke patients receive appropriate and timely care.
“We are delighted to see the improvement in stroke care as demonstrated by these hospitals,” said Appathurai Balamurugan, MD, DrPH, state chronic disease director. “Through our work with the communities, EMS, and hospitals we hope to improve quality of stroke care among Arkansans with this devastating condition.”
The Arkansas Stroke Registry (ASR) is the ADH stroke surveillance and quality improvement program. Oversight for the ASR is provided by the Acute Stroke Care Task Force (ASCTF). The ASR partners closely with the AHA/ASA, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), the ASCTF, and Arkansas Stroke Assistance through Virtual Emergency Support (AR SAVES) and the Mercy Telestroke system. The primary goal of the ASR is to perform stroke surveillance, monitor stroke care performance, and provide stroke education and quality improvement assistance to improve stroke patient care and outcomes.
Hospitals receiving stroke care performance awards for defect-free patient care include:
Level 1 Award (≥90% Measure Adherence*)
·Washington Regional Medical Center
Level 2 Award (≥85% Measure Adherence)
·St. Bernards Five Rivers Medical Center
·Johnson Regional Medical Center
Level 3 Award (≥80% Measure Adherence)
·Baptist Health – Fort Smith
·Baptist Health Medical Center – Little Rock
·Methodist University Hospital
·St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center
·University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
·Wadley Regional Medical Center
*Measure adherence is the percentage of the time the Coverdell defect-free stroke care measure was met during the July of 2017 through June of 2018 time period.