TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gabriel, Katharina M. A.
A1  - Jírů-Hillmann, Steffi
A1  - Kraft, Peter
A1  - Selig, Udo
A1  - Rücker, Victoria
A1  - Mühler, Johannes
A1  - Dötter, Klaus
A1  - Keidel, Matthias
A1  - Soda, Hassan
A1  - Rascher, Alexandra
A1  - Schneider, Rolf
A1  - Pfau, Mathias
A1  - Hoffmann, Roy
A1  - Stenzel, Joachim
A1  - Benghebrid, Mohamed
A1  - Goebel, Tobias
A1  - Doerck, Sebastian
A1  - Kramer, Daniela
A1  - Haeusler, Karl Georg
A1  - Volkmann, Jens
A1  - Heuschmann, Peter U.
A1  - Fluri, Felix
T1  - Two years' experience of implementing a comprehensive telemedical stroke network comprising in mainly rural region: the Transregional Network for Stroke Intervention with Telemedicine (TRANSIT-Stroke)
JF  - BMC Neurology
N2  - Background 
Telemedicine improves the quality of acute stroke care in rural regions with limited access to specialized stroke care. We report the first 2 years' experience of implementing a comprehensive telemedical stroke network comprising all levels of stroke care in a defined region. 

Methods 
The TRANSIT-Stroke network covers a mainly rural region in north-western Bavaria (Germany). All hospitals providing acute stroke care in this region participate in TRANSIT-Stroke, including four hospitals with a supra-regional certified stroke unit (SU) care (level III), three of those providing teleconsultation to two hospitals with a regional certified SU (level II) and five hospitals without specialized SU care (level I). For a two-year-period (01/2015 to 12/2016), data of eight of these hospitals were available; 13 evidence-based quality indicators (QIs) related to processes during hospitalisation were evaluated quarterly and compared according to predefined target values between level-I- and level-II/III-hospitals. 

Results 
Overall, 7881 patients were included (mean age 74.6 years +/- 12.8; 48.4% female). In level-II/III-hospitals adherence of all QIs to predefined targets was high ab initio. In level-I-hospitals, three patterns of QI-development were observed: a) high adherence ab initio (31%), mainly in secondary stroke prevention; b) improvement over time (44%), predominantly related to stroke specific diagnosis and in-hospital organization; c) no clear time trends (25%). Overall, 10 out of 13 QIs reached predefined target values of quality of care at the end of the observation period. 

Conclusion 
The implementation of the comprehensive TRANSIT-Stroke network resulted in an improvement of quality of care in level-I-hospitals.
KW  - pilot project
KW  - care tempis
KW  - ischemic stroke
KW  - thrombolysis
KW  - areas
KW  - time
KW  - hospitals
KW  - mortality
KW  - outcomes
KW  - quality
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-229214
VL  - 20
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hillmann, Steffi
A1  - Wiedmann, Silke
A1  - Fraser, Alec
A1  - Baeza, Juan
A1  - Rudd, Anthony
A1  - Norrving, Bo
A1  - Asplund, Kjell
A1  - Niewada, Maciej
A1  - Dennis, Martin
A1  - Hermanek, Peter
A1  - Wolfe, Charles D. A.
A1  - Heuschmann, Peter U.
T1  - Temporal changes in the quality of acute stroke care in five national audits across Europe
JF  - BioMed Research International
N2  - Background. Data on potential variations in delivery of appropriate stroke care over time are scarce. We investigated temporal changes in the quality of acute hospital stroke care across five national audits in Europe over a period of six years. Methods. Data were derived from national stroke audits in Germany, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, and England/Wales/Northern Ireland participating within the European Implementation Score (EIS) collaboration. Temporal changes in predefined quality indicators with comparable information between the audits were investigated. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate adherence to quality indicators over time. Results. Between 2004 and 2009, individual data from 542,112 patients treated in 538 centers participating continuously over the study period were included. In most audits, the proportions of patients who were treated on a SU, were screened for dysphagia, and received thrombolytic treatment increased over time and ranged from 2-fold to almost 4-fold increase in patients receiving thrombolytic therapy in 2009 compared to 2004. Conclusions. A general trend towards a better quality of stroke care defined by standardized quality indicators was observed over time. The association between introducing a specific measure and higher adherence over time might indicate that monitoring of stroke care performance contributes to improving quality of care.
KW  - ischemic stroke
KW  - indicators
KW  - thrombolysis
KW  - registries
KW  - outcomes
KW  - mortality
KW  - implementation
KW  - German Stroke Registers Study Group
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-149059
VL  - 2015
IS  - 432497
ER  -