Background and Purpose-Previous studies show better outcomes for patients with stroke receiving care in stroke units, but many different stroke unit criteria have been published. In this study, we explored whether stroke centers fulfilling standardized Brain Attack Coalition criteria produce better patient outcomes than hospitals without stroke centers.

Introduction. In health care, measures of performance are needed at producer level for improving the treatment processes and at system level for steering purposes. In addition, measures that enable reliable comparisons of producers with respect to each other should encourage them to develop their treatment processes to attain better positioning in benchmarking. Methods. The main innovation of the Performance, Effectiveness, and Costs of Treatment episodes (PERFECT) project is to measure performance using existing linkable information available from registers within well-defi ned care episodes in a whole population. Finnish health care and related registers are used for constructing the disease-specifi c databases, with rich content on treatment processes and complete follow-up data. Results. The PERFECT project has developed numerous performance indicators that can be used to evaluate health policy actions as well as to create regional and hospital-level benchmarking data. In PERFECT, the idea is to eliminate individual-level variation from the performance indicators by using individual-level data and proper risk adjustment methods. The focus of our interest is in the variation at the producer or regional level. Conclusions. Our experience shows that the utilization of population-level health care registers with an episode-of-care approach enables a continual system and producer-level performance measurement.

Introduction : This article in this supplement issue on the Performance, Effectiveness, and Costs of Treatment episodes (PERFECT) project describes trends in Finnish stroke treatment and outcome. Material and Methods : The PERFECT Stroke study uses multiple national registry linkages at individual patient level to produce a national stroke database with comprehensive follow-up of all hospital-treated stroke patients in Finland. Results : There were 94,316 incident stroke patients treated in Finnish hospitals from 1999 to 2007. Lengths-of-stays decreased after ischemic stroke (IS), and increased after intracerebral (ICH) and subarachnoid (SAH) hemorrhage. Tenyear survival improved in IS (hazard ratio 0.75; 95% CI 0.71 -0.79) and ICH patients (0.88; 0.79 -0.97), increasing median survival by 2 and 1 life-years respectively. This has translated into more days spent home among IS patients, but not among ICH patients. Treatment by neurologists improved the survival of IS (odds ratio [OR] 1.77; 95% CI 1.70 -1.84) and ICH patients (OR 1.55; 95% CI 1.40 -1.69), and treatment by neurosurgeons of SAH patients (OR 2.66; 95% CI 2.25 -3.16), the effects were further improved by care in specialized stroke centers. Discussion : The survival of Finnish IS and ICH patients has improved. Specialized acute care was associated with improved outcome.

Introduction . This article in the supplement on the PERFormance, Effectiveness, and Costs of Treatment episodes (PERFECT)-project aims to measure the performance and quality of hip fracture treatment by analysing annual trends and regional differences in developed performance indicators. Material and methods . The PERFECT Hip Fracture Database contains all hip fracture patients identifi ed from the Hospital Discharge Register in Finland since 1999. Follow-up data from several administrative registers were also linked to the database. Several risk-adjusted performance indicators were developed. Results. In 2007 (compared with 1999), 4.1 percentage points fewer patients had died and 7.5 percentage points more patients were at home four months after fracture. The mean length of treatment had shortened from about 50 to about 45 days, and the mean costs of treatment per patient during the year following hip fracture had increased from about € 18,000 to almost € 20,000. There was extensive variation between the hospitals in the proportion of patients with an operative delay longer than two days and clear differences between hospital districts in several performance indicators. Conclusions. Outcomes of hip fracture treatment in Finland have been improved in recent years, but regional variation exists. Register-based data are useful for performance assessment of hip fracture treatment.

Background and Purpose-Stroke databases are established to systematically evaluate both the treatment and outcome of stroke patients and the structure and processes of stroke services. Comprehensive data collection on this common disease is resource-intensive, and national stroke databases often include only patients from selected hospitals. Here we describe an alternative national stroke database. Methods-We established a nationwide stroke database with multiple administrative registry linkages at the individualpatient level. Information on comorbidities; treatments before, during, and after stroke; living status; recurrences; case fatality; and costs were collected for each hospital-treated stroke patient. Results-The current database includes 94 316 patients with incident stroke between January 1999 and December 2007, with follow-up until December 2008. Annually, 10 500 new patients are being added. One-year recurrence was 13% and case fatality was 27% during the study period. In 2007, 86% of patients survived 1 month and 77% were living at home at 3 months, but the proportion treated in stroke centers (62%) or with nationally recommended secondary preventive medication after ischemic stroke (49%) was still suboptimal. Conclusions-In comparison with other national stroke databases, our method enables higher coverage and more thorough follow-up of patients. Information on long-term recurrences, case fatality, or costs is not often included in national stroke databases. Our database has low maintenance costs, but it lacks detailed data on in-hospital processes. Use of national administrative data, where such linkage is possible, saves resources, achieves high rates of long-term follow-up, and allows for comprehensive monitoring of the burden of the disease. (Stroke. 2010;41:2239-2246.)

We previously found a positive association between calcium plus vitamin D and antiosteoporotic drugs and survival among hip fracture patients. Our aim was to verify this observation using a nationwide database. A retrospective cohort of home-discharged hip fracture patients aged 50 years or older (n ¼ 23,615) was enrolled from the national database. Primary exposure was medical treatment for osteoporosis, and the outcome was all-cause mortality. Cumulative mortalities were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier estimator. The relationship between mortality and medication purchases was modeled using Cox's proportional hazards regression with timedependent covariates for medication use. One in 4 women and 1 in 10 men with a hip fracture were treated for osteoporosis in Finland. Unadjusted 1-year mortality was lower among patients who purchased calcium plus vitamin D or vitamin D supplements and antiosteoporotic drugs than among those who did not purchase these medications [hazard ratio (HR) ¼ 0.74, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.67-0.81]. The difference in unadjusted cumulative mortality remained in favor of the drug users for at least 5 years. Among men, the use of calcium plus vitamin D or vitamin D supplements was associated with lower 1-year mortality even after adjustments for observed confounders (HR ¼ 0.74, 95% CI 0.56-0.97). Among women, the use of antiosteoporotic drugs was associated with lower mortality (HR ¼ 0.79, 95% CI 0.67-0.93). There was a tendency to even better survival in both genders if calcium plus vitamin D or vitamin D supplements and antiosteoporotic drugs were used simultaneously, the HR being 0.72 (95% CI 0.50-1.03) in men and 0.62 (95% CI 0.50-0.76) in women. ß

Background and Purpose-Treatment of stroke consumes a significant portion of all healthcare expenditure. We developed a system for monitoring costs from individual patient data on a national level in Finland. Methods-Multiple national administrative registers were linked to gain episode-of-care data on all hospital-treated patients with incident stroke over the years 1999 to 2007 (nϭ94 316). Inpatient and specialist outpatient costs were evaluated with a cost database, long-term care costs with fixed prices, and medication costs with true retail prices. Results-For the patients of Year 2007, the mean 1-year costs after an ischemic stroke were $29 580, after an intracerebral hemorrhage $36 220, and after a subarachnoid hemorrhage $42 570, valued in Year 2008 US dollars. Only part of these costs are attributable to stroke, because the annual costs prior to stroke were significant, $8900 before ischemic stroke, $7600 before intracerebral hemorrhage, and $4200 before subarachnoid hemorrhage. Older patients with ischemic stroke, and, among patients with ischemic stroke and subarachnoid hemorrhage, women, incurred higher costs. The mean estimated lifetime costs were $130 000 after ischemic stroke or intracerebral hemorrhage and $80 000 after subarachnoid hemorrhage. Annually $1.6 billion is spent in the care of Finnish patients with stroke, which equals to 7% of the national healthcare expenditure, or 0.6% of the gross domestic product. Costs of patients with stroke are increasing with prolonged survival and the aging population. Conclusions-Treatment

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