Uniform data collection to help improve quality of care may lead to national care standards
FRIDAY, Jan. 14 (HealthDay News) -- The American Heart Association has proposed a set of metrics intended to provide a framework for standard data collection at comprehensive stroke centers (CSCs). These metrics, published online Jan. 13 in Stroke, will help monitor quality of care in these centers and may lead to the development of national performance standards.
Dana Leifer, M.D., from the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, and colleagues analyzed reviews, guideline statements, and other literature identifying the main features that distinguish CSCs from primary stroke centers, in order to create a set of metrics and related data to measure key aspects of stroke care.
The researchers propose 26 metrics to help facilitate monitoring of the quality of care at CSCs, covering the major aspects of specialized care for patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease and nontraumatic subarachnoid and intracerebral hemorrhages. The authors explain that the goal of the metrics is to help stroke centers improve their care and to standardize data collection from different CSCs. In the future, the data may be used to develop national CSC standards of care.
"The metrics that we have proposed for CSCs should help provide a framework for establishing CSCs and a foundation for improving care once they are established," the authors write.
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