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Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to identify successful initiatives this community hospital used to improve its stroke care.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to discuss lessons learned from implementation of the initiatives by the community hospital.
As part of our hospital’s mission to improve life we chose to focus on enhancing stroke care from prevention to discharge home. We were determined to achieve Primary Stroke Center Certification to communicate our desire to optimize outcomes in patients with acute strokes. A multidisciplinary team including physician and nurse champions, community outreach, prehospital, hospital and rehabilitation staff was formed. We utilized evidence based guidelines from the American Stroke Association and The Joint Commission’s Stroke Core Measurement Set to evaluate our stroke care and guide improvements. Multiple initiatives have resulted from our team efforts. We have implemented a stroke alert starting with emergency medical services assessment and flowing to appropriate hospital departments to prepare them to receive a patient with a stroke. Our electronic medical record has been utilized to facilitate evidence based care with clinical practice guidelines, the addition of computerized stroke order sets and prompts for complete stroke patient education and rehabilitation referral. Both professional and community education and screening have focused on stroke risk factors, stroke identification and the need for urgent treatment. We received Primary Stroke Center Certification. Ongoing data analysis has shown that we are more frequently completing dysphagia screening, are providing more complete stroke patient education, are assessing more frequently for rehabilitation, and have improved the timeliness of assessments post thrombolytic therapy. We continue to monitor our stroke performance data and implement improvements to stroke care in our community
See more of: Oral Paper & Poster: Evidence-Based Practice Contest