"You can never say, 'We're there, we've done it,' and just sit back when it comes to stroke care," he says. "There is a whole set of guidelines for what to do if someone is having a stroke, and our program consists of an entire package, from how to prevent it to managing life after stroke. We provide educational programs for the community. Our emergency room staff is trained to prioritize strokes and treat according to national guidelines. We also have special stroke units with clinicians specially trained in stroke who follow the important issues specific to stroke treatment."

Van Houten points out that when he submitted Washington Hospital's application for the GWTG program, he needed to provide proof that Washington's program was achieving the guidelines.

"The program is required to submit data through an online data-management tool," he says. "From there, the ASA can see our data, and we can compare our program with stroke programs throughout the country."

In addition to submitting the data to the AHA/ASA, the data collected on stroke care at Washington Hospital also is used to continually evaluate and improve treatment.

"If you perform these 10 basic core measures set forth by the American Stroke Association, then you are providing patients with excellent care," Dr. Jain says. "But we don't stop with just the basic requirements. We want to go further and cover everything related to stroke. Managing diabetes is not one of the measures included, nor is hypertension, but we are very thorough in identifying and treating these risk factors."

Source Washington Hospital's Stroke Program