The NECC Subacute and Secondary Prevention Work Group is currently recruiting hospitals for The NECC pilot project focusing on assessing the discharge education for stroke patients. 
 

Pilot Project Description:  Hospitals that volunteer to participate in this pilot will commit to survey stroke patients at discharge and again within sixty days or at the first follow up visit after discharge to assess the efficacy of education efforts.  The results of this survey will be analyzed and will aid The NECC in development of an implementation strategy to address any gaps in how stroke education is delivered and the type of materials used in discharge education packets. 

Timeline:  We will be recruiting hospitals now through December for data collection to begin January 1, 2012.  There will be an instructional conference call for committed sites in December/early January. 

Interested Hospitals Should: View the Webinar recording and read through the recruitment package.  If your hospital decides to participate you will need to complete the Hospital Recruitment Form and submit it to The NECC.

If you have any questions please contact Shannon Melluzzo at shannon.melluzzo@heart.org or 413-735-2104.  

If you were unable to participate in one of the Webinar you may view the recorded Webinar by clicking on the following link.

The Subacute Care and Secondary Prevention working group focuses their efforts around the following six recommendations for the Implementation of the Stroke Systems of Care Model in the Northeast Region (Gropen et al., Regional Implementation of the Stroke Systems of Care Model: Recommendations of the Northeast Cerebrovascular Consortium, Stroke 40(5): 1793 (2009)).

• A regional aggregate and deidentified assessment of adherence to hospital-based subacute care and secondary prevention performance measures should be compiled and reported periodically based on readily available data sources (eg, Get With The Guidelines–Stroke (GWTG-Stroke), Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Registry, state sources).
• Up-to-date educational resources and best practices for hospital-based stroke prevention and education should be gathered from hospitals across the NECC. This material should be made freely available in a forum that supports interactive dialogue among individuals involved in stroke care.
• A uniform discharge packet should be developed that includes patient and  caregiver education materials covering the five areas specified in the harmonized consensus measure set (AHA, CDC, TJC) and systems established to ensure that all patients have an opportunity for face-to-face discussion during the inpatient admission.
• In addition to the inpatient care delivered, the goals of secondary prevention should be summarized as part of the inpatient record and made available to the primary care physician, other generalist, or specialist primarily responsible for the long-term care of the patient. Ideally, the goals of secondary prevention should be communicated to the patient in a manner similar to that used by the primary prevention report card.
• Pilot programs should be developed to explore the feasibility of secondary stroke prevention clinics in the delivery of comprehensive services, provider education, and as a resource for the management of complex or unusual cases.
• All patients with transient ischemic attack and minor stroke are at risk for stroke and other major vascular disease outcomes, especially in the first few weeks after the index event. These patients should be treated with equal urgency as those with more disabling events.