FRIDAY, Feb. 17, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Hospitals that used the American Stroke Association's intervention program showed improvement in several key areas of stroke care and maintained those advances through two years, according to a study by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital.
They analyzed the impact of the "Get With The Guidelines-Stroke" program on the care of 37,753 stroke patients at 65 U.S. hospitals that used the program for two consecutive years.
"Our findings challenge the conventional wisdom that hospitals should focus one intervention at a time. Using our guidelines, hospitals improved in several domains simultaneously. While a lot of improvement efforts wane after the first year, this program showed sustained improvement over two years," study lead author Dr. Lee H. Schwamm, director of TeleStroke and acute stroke services at Massachusetts General, said in a prepared statement.
Get With The Guidelines-Stroke promotes the following interventions:
- Using the clot-busting drug tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) within three hours after onset of stroke symptoms;
- Administering antithrombotic clot-inhibiting drugs, such as aspirin, within 48 hours of stroke onset;
- Preventing deep vein thrombosis within the first 48 hours;
- Prescribing antithrombotics at discharge;
- Prescribing anticoagulation therapy for atrial fibrillation (a form of irregular heartbeat);
- Treating high cholesterol at discharge;
- Counseling for smoking cessation at discharge;
- Treating diabetes at discharge;
- Counseling for lifestyle changes in obese patients.
The study pointed to the use of tPA as an example of the improvements achieved by the program. Before they implemented the new program, the hospitals in the study gave tPA to 27.6 percent of eligible patients within two hours of stroke onset. By the end of the first year, that had increased to 51 percent and remained at that level through the second year.
The study found that "Get With The Guidelines-Stroke" not only helped hospitals improve their performance in these primary areas, but also in "collateral" areas such as diabetes and obesity management.
The findings were presented Thursday at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference in Kissimmee, Fla.
More information
The American Heart Association has more about tPA.
