Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)
TJC continued as one of our highest-rated alliances, with an active program — JCAHO Primary Stroke Center Certification Program — supported throughout the field infrastructure. More than 285 hospitals have received certification through this program. Our Advisory Working Group on Stroke Center Certification continued meeting quarterly with JCAHO and provided a series of recommendations to support continuous improvement and growth of the program. Strategic Alliances has worked to improve marketing efforts between JCAHO and GWTG, resulting in an agreement with JCAHO to make GWTG more visible in its marketing efforts. 

National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)
As of the end of the fiscal year (July 2006), 1,476 new physician leads were generated for Heart Stroke Recognition Program (HSRP). In our drive to increase the uptake of HSRP with primary care groups, we now have the support of ACP and AAFP in promoting this program. Pilot projects are now underway at the Texas and Mid-Atlantic affiliates, and at primary care groups. 

American Academy of Neurology (AAN)
ASA continues to have a strong relationship with the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). Over the past year, our collaborative efforts have resulted in a new DRG for payment of stroke care, a new co-funded research award in stroke neurology, recognition and promotion of primary and secondary prevention guidelines and an activation of AAN Palatucci Physician Advocates within the State Stroke Systems of Care planning across the states.

With support from other members of the Brain Attack Coalition, AAN and AHA/ASA supported a new DRG code for acute stroke treatment. CMS created DRG 559 for Acute Ischemic Stroke with use of a thrombolytic agent, with a higher reimbursement for facilities treating patients with a reperfusion agent. 

We and the foundation of the AAN funded and launched a special AAN/AHA/ASA Stroke Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Research Award. The award will be named in honor of Dr. Larry Brass, a key volunteer for both organizations who made significant contributions in stroke awareness and research. The application/review/award process will be managed by AHA Research Administration staff. Both organizations will fund and promote the award, which provides clinically trained investigators an opportunity to continue funded research careers in neurology with a stroke focus.

American Academy of Neuroscience Nurses (AANN)
More information coming soon

American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)
With ASA, formed the Stroke Collaborative, a joint campaign of the American Academy of Neurology, the American College of Emergency Physicians, and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. The collaborative formed the Give Me 5 For Stroke campaign in response to stroke team research conducted in 2007 with emergency physicians, neurologists, emergency nurses and EMS providers. The goals of the campaign are to:

• increase awareness among consumers of stroke symptoms, to call 9-1-1, and get to the emergency department fast, and
• bring together three leading organizations to focus on the acute stroke team, assemble professional resources in one location and develop new resources (including materials for patient and caregiver) to provide optimal patient care.

One of the most significant accomplishments is a special Fellow-to-Faculty Transition Award in Emergency Medicine Focusing on Cardiovascular Disease or Stroke, co-funded, co-branded and co-marketed by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, the Emergency Medicine Foundation (ACEP’s Foundation) and AHA/ASA. The application/review/award process will be managed by AHA Research Administration staff. For the five-year award, SAEM and EMF will fund the postdoctoral phase of this award, and the AHA/ASA will fund the faculty portion. The program enables clinically trained investigators to complete their research training and begin independent research careers in emergency medicine and this collaboration will result in greater exposure of our research awards to the emergency medicine audience.

For the first time, ASA products and resources (free downloadable educational handouts, etc) were included in the ACEP Resource Kit to celebrate National EMS Week and distributed to more than 30,000 ambulance companies, hospitals, and community agencies. The AHA/ASA was also invited to present in ACEP’s Corporate Advisory Council meeting, with the opportunity to present to multiple sponsors the structure of our organization and the specific ways the AHA/ASA is interested in working with emergency physicians.

STROKE Campaign – AHA/ASA, AAN and ACEP
ASA developed the first collaborative proposal between ACEP and AAN for a campaign on stroke awareness, urgency for consumer warning sign action and physician assessment. The proposed program includes a consumer media campaign (radio) to call 9-1-1 and “Get to the Emergency Department Fast” and a physician resource kit that would be offered free to stroke teams in early 2007. The materials will be tri-branded with the AHA/ASA, AAN and ACEP logos and the collaborative is currently under consideration for corporate sponsorship. 

State Stroke Systems of Care
Since 2004, ASA representatives in each state have been working with state-level collaborative groups to complete the environmental assessment and a strategic plan on how to improve on the identified gaps within the State Stroke Systems of Care. A volunteer advisory group identified Progress Markers from the white paper to help identify the extent of the implementation in and across the states of the priority recommendations across all 50 states in the areas of primary prevention, EMS/pre-hospital, acute care, subacute care and rehabilitation.

Some important findings from these state evaluations include:

• 48 states have formal stroke systems of care stakeholder committees
• 37 states have a state plan that includes specific information on stroke
• 49 states have stroke prevention on the policy agenda
• 25 states have E911 coverage for at least 90 percent of the state population
• 9 states have 100 percent implementation (in all counties) of a standardized EMS stroke triage assessment tool and 10 have standardized stroke treatment protocols

This content is reviewed regularly. Last updated 09/25/08.