Introduction: Stroke is a leading cause of disability in the United States. Disparities in stroke care between metropolitan and rural areas have long been recognized. Access to high-level timely stroke expertise improves outcomes, but in rural areas this is limited by sparse availability of stroke specialists. Since 2006, the Nebraska Stroke Advisory Council, a statewide coalition of stroke experts and stakeholders, began implementing strategies to improve stroke care. In 2016, the Nebraska legislature approved Bill 722, mandating the development of stroke systems of care. In 2018, the AHA and the Helmsley Charitable Trust launched Mission: Lifeline Stroke, a coordinated 3-year program to enhance stroke systems of care in Nebraska. Purpose: To assess advances in acute stroke care in Nebraska after implementing a statewide stroke system of care focused on rural areas. Methods: The Council joined with AHA to expand public and professional stroke education offerings including workshops, conferences, and EMS trainings. They developed state specific treatment guidelines and created educational reinforcement materials. From 2016 to 2019 Get With The Guidelines® (GWTG) was used for stroke data collection and quality improvement in Nebraska. GWTG participating hospitals expanded from 7 to 40 sites (21 critical access). Results: The number of stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack cases reported more than doubled from 2016 to 2019 (1848 to 3987 cases). The door to CT initiated in < 25 minutes improved by 13%. IV alteplase therapy gains included: utilization increased from 8.7% to 11.3%; median door to drug time reduced from 54 to 42 minutes; and door to drug within 60 minutes of arrival increased from 67% to 80.4%.The number of alteplase monitored patients doubled and mechanical thrombectomy cases increased from 77 in 2017 to 138 in 2019. Conclusion: Implementation of strategies in Nebraska, with an emphasis on rural critical access hospitals, led to significant improvements in acute stroke care. This work represents the authors’ independent analysis of local or multicenter data gathered using the AHA Get With The Guidelines® Patient Management Tool but is not an analysis of the national GWTG dataset and does not represent findings from the AHA GWTG National Program
Introduction: Mission: Lifeline Stroke Nebraska was a 4-year program to enhance stroke systems of care in Nebraska. With 68% of hospitals in Nebraska participating in GWTG-Stroke, analysis of stroke treatment data can be accomplished on disparities across the state. Methods: De-identified data was accessed through AHA GWTG-Stroke registry to assess stroke outcomes of patients at 49 participating NE hospitals in 2020. Data were analyzed based on AHA specified Mission: Lifeline reporting, achievement, and pre-hospital measures. The purpose of analysis was to describe patient characteristics and determine differences in IV thrombolytic treatment and mean patient NIH stroke score (NIHSS) upon admission. Percentages and counts were reported for categorical variables. The mean, standard deviation (SD) and median were reported for continuous variables. The Kruskal-Wallis rank sum, Wilcoxon sign rank, T-tests, chi-square and one-way ANOVA tests were used, where appropriate, to assess differences in stroke outcomes by age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Results: Of the 3,952 patient encounters registered in GWTG-Stroke from 01/01/2020 to 12/31/20, 2670 (67.5 %) were patients 18+ at time of admission with clinical diagnosis of ischemic stroke. Statistically significant differences in age, NIHSS at admission, and treatment with thrombolytics by gender were observed. Compared to males, females were older (72.7 vs. 68.1 years), had a lower mean NIHSS at admission (5.8 vs. 6.0), and a smaller proportion of females received thrombolytic treatment (42% vs. 58%). Conclusions: Overall, females were less likely to receive IV thrombolytic treatment compared to males. Women in the study were older with lower NIHSS than males. Results from this analysis align with those from the study “The Impact of Sex and Gender on Stroke” (Rexrode, et al.,2022) indicating that females may present different signs of a stroke than males. Our data showed the NIHSS scores to be lower for females possibly leading to lower frequency of treatment. As a part of the Mission: Lifeline initiative, this information was shared with hospitals and providers across the state. These results led to public awareness and education targeted to women, including a local podcast and social media.
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