Arkansas Department of Health Recognizes Hospitals for Stroke Care Performance
Little Rock, Ark. – The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) recognizes fourteen hospitals for excellence in stroke patient care.
These awards are based on stroke care performance as documented in the Arkansas Stroke Registry for July 2021 and June 2022 patient discharges. They are given to hospitals for providing defect-free stroke care. Defect-free care is an aggregated metric based on the ten 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 Bala Simon, MD, DRPH, Deputy Chief Medical Officer and State Chronic Disease Director at Arkansas Department of Health. “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, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Institute for Health and Innovation (IDHI) Stroke Program, 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.
There are three award categories* based on the level of adherence to the defect-free care measure:
• Diamond: 95%+
• Ruby: 90%-94.99%
• Pearl: 85%-89.99% Congratulations to the following facilities for earning recognition for defect-free stroke care:
Stroke Centers
Comprehensive Diamond
• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
• Washington Regional Medical Center
• Baptist Health Medical Center – Little Rock
Primary Stroke Centers Pearl
• Mercy Hospital Fort Smith
• Northwest Medical Center – Springdale
• Wadley Regional Medical Center
Pearl Arkansas Stroke Ready Hospitals/acute Stroke Ready Hospitals Diamond
• Drew Memorial Hospital
• Mercy Hospital Booneville
• St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center
Ruby
• St. Bernards – Five Rivers Medical Center
Pearl
• Mercy ED Springdale
• Medical Center of South Arkansas
• Johnson Regional Medical Center
• Baptist Health Medical Center – Arkadelphia
*To be eligible for an award, a hospital must be stroke designated either through ADH or other accrediting body such as The Joint Commission. A hospital may also qualify for a Pearl award if performance is in the 75th percentile among its designation group.
Visit https://www.healthy. arkansas.gov/ for a listing of hospitals participating in the Arkansas Stroke Registry as well as stroke designated facilities.