HealthCare Alliance Improves Stroke Care

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 8, 2012) - The following column appeared in the Lexington Herald-Leader on Sunday, May 6.

HealthCare alliance improves stroke care

Hundreds of unique health care providers have been educated through network sponsored programs. There is also frequent on-site education at affiliates provided by teams from UKHC, and Emergency Medical Services focused educational offerings.

Telemedicine is important to the network for education purposes, and many stroke network educational activities have been provided via the Kentucky Telehealth Network.

Relationships are built through on-site visits and network meetings. The network also builds better relationships and better care through community outreach activities. Thousands have been screened for stroke risk as a direct result of network activities.

Hundreds of elementary school students have been taught about stroke recognition, healthy living, and risk factor prevention.

Quality of care initiatives include: improving turnaround times for laboratory tests in stroke patients, reducing the amount of time it takes to get brain scans, and more efficient and faster stroke treatment guidelines for physicians. We want to improve stroke care speed, safety and outcomes.

Recently the network teamed up with Norton Healthcare in Louisville, and we have funding to expand co-sponsored network services to include a registry.

The network registry, when fully functional, may capture data on several thousand stroke patients per year around the state. Registry data will initially be used to monitor quality of care and study health care differences within Kentucky and may have implications for stroke care far beyond Kentucky.

Current affiliate hospitals include UK hospitals, Norton Healthcare hospitals, Hazard Appalachian Regional Healthcare and all other ARH hospitals in Kentucky, Georgetown Community Hospital, Rockcastle Regional Medical Center, Harrison Memorial Hospital, St. Claire Regional Medical Center, Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital, and Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center.

For more information about the Stroke Affiliate Network, call 1-800-333-8874 or visit UKHealthCare.UKY.edu / stroke and click on “Stroke Affiliate Network.”

Dr. Michael R. Dobbs is UK HealthCare Stroke Program and Stroke Affiliate Network Director and an associate professor of UK College of Medicine.