Clinical trial NCT05218135: BIC: Evaluation of the Current Care Processes for Stroke Care in Flemish Hospitals
Official title: Evaluation of the Current Care Processes for Stroke Care in Flemish Hospitals Via a Breakthrough Improvement Collaborative
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Stroke, Ischemic
Lead sponsor: KU Leuven
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2022-02-01
Enrollment: 2610
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: OTHER
Time perspective: RETROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Patients with acute ischemic stroke

Brief summary: Different studies showed large variation between care processes in multiple diseases, which lead to large variation in outcomes. Better adherence to evidence-based guidelines for these diseases can reduce this variation and can improve the health outcomes. Since international studies have demonstrated wide variations in care processes for acute stroke, it would be interesting to repeat these investigations in the population of stroke patients. Worldwide, stroke is a leading cause of disability and death. Every two seconds, someone across the world experiences a symptomatic stroke. 50% of stroke survivors has moderate to severe neurologic deficits, 25% of them depend on others. In Belgium, stroke is one of the most important causes of invalidity. Every year approximately 18 000 people in Belgium experiences a stroke, which results in almost one person every two hours, with a mortality rate of 30%. The world health organization has the ambition to significantly reduce the mortality and risk factors for non-communicable diseases by 2025. The mortality and disability in stroke patients can be reduced by organized stroke care, which includes effective strategies in stroke management, treatment and prevention. Also, other health domains, like functional recovery, healthcare costs and patient satisfaction, were positively related to adherence on stroke guidelines. This evidence had been converted in several clinical guidelines for stroke care. However, the adherence to these guidelines is variable. As already mentioned before, international studies have demonstrated wide variations in care processes for acute stroke. However, a positive relationship has been shown between the implementation of evidence-based clinical guidelines and the quality of stroke care. Therefore, it is important to both implement these guidelines and to improve the adherence to them.

The aim of this study is to map the variation in stroke care in Flemish hospitals and to get an overview about the variation within and between these hospitals. During this study, electronic patient records will be analyzed to check which interventions are performed in a specific patient and of which no information could be found in de patient record.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Minimum age of 18 years
* Admitted to the emergency department and diagnosed with an ischemic stroke

Exclusion Criteria:

* Diagnosed with cerebral venous thrombosis
* Diagnosed with hemorrhage
* Thrombectomy performed

Primary outcomes:
measure: Variation within and between hospitals
timeFrame: through study completion, an average of 3 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Mortality rate
timeFrame: Through study completion on average of 3 months
measure: modified Rankin Scale
timeFrame: Through study completion on average of 3 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Leuven
country: Belgium
facility: KU Leuven
state: Vlaams-Brabant
Study officials:
References: