UK Stroke Program Team Shares CSC Designation Data with Cleveland Clinic
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 24, 2014) -- Leadership from the UK HealthCare's stroke team has been invited to assist The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association in a "prep visit" to the Cleveland Clinic as their stroke center applies for Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) designation from The Joint Commission.
Kelley Elkins, UK HealthCare Stroke program coordinator, and Lisa Bellamy, director of education and quality for the UK HealthCare/Norton Healthcare-Stroke Care Network, will travel to Cleveland to share their experience with the CSC application process, which UK HealthCare completed late last year.
The prep visit is funded by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and is designed to help institutions applying for CSC designation understand TJC's expectations for accreditation.
"When we were working towards our CSC designation, we received the same type of support from AHA/ASA and from Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, which helped us considerably as we prepared for our site visit from TJC," said Elkins. " Interpreting the CSC standards can be challenging, and we hope our experiences can help The Cleveland Clinic achieve their goal of CSC designation."
The invitation comes just two months after UK HeathCare earned its own CSC designation, which is the highest honor TJC awards to stroke centers. UK HealthCare is one of only 63 U.S. institutions with CSC designation.
"It's quite a compliment that we've been asked to do this so soon after our own designation was announced," says Bellamy. "This type of sharing process prevents each institution from having to recreate the wheel, which is also what the Stroke Care Network is about."
The UK HealthCare/Norton HealthCare Stroke Care Network is a unique program dedicated to community education and standards-sharing with affiliate hospitals in Kentucky and West Virginia.
The Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and evaluation body in health care. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits more than 20,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the US.