Annual report card lists Bluewater Health as a top performer in two categories

Useless categories to measure, survivors want to know your results, not your procedure percentages. You lazy blithering idiots.
1. Nothing on 100% recovery statistics.
2. Nothing on 30-day deaths compared to other hospitals.
3. Nothing on the efficacy of their stroke rehab protocols.
4.  Nothing on tPA full efficacy.
5. Nothing on their misdiagnosis percentage of strokes, especially young strokes.
Guidelines prove nothing.
http://www.theobserver.ca/2017/07/07/annual-report-card-lists-bluewater-health-as-a-top-performer-in-two-categories
Stroke patients at Bluewater Health are the most likely in Ontario to receive an ultrasound to help determine the cause, and potentially prevent another stroke from occurring.
The Sarnia-Lambton hospital group had 97.7 per cent of all its stroke patients receive carotid imaging – neck ultrasounds showing the carotid arteries – April 2015 to March 2016.
That’s up from 93.9 per cent the year before.
In both cases Bluewater Health was the top performer in the province.
It’s good news for local patients, said Paula Gilmore, director of stroke and vascular rehabilitation.
“Really (the imaging) is to determine the cause of the stroke in order to better treat or prevent a second episode from occurring,” she said.
In some cases doing the imaging detects plaque buildup in the arteries that requires surgery.
Like most things related to stroke, the faster it’s detected, she said, the better.
The ranking was part of the recent Ontario Stroke Report Card that measures hospitals and local health integration networks across the province in 20 categories.
In general, stroke care is improving in the province.
More hospitals – 28 – had stroke units and 60 per cent of all patients were admitted to designated stroke centres, according to the Ontario Stroke Network report
Three quarters of patients were referred to secondary prevention clinics.
There’s still plenty of room for improvement, the authors note, explaining if all regions performed at benchmark levels, more than 6,100 patients would have access to stroke unit care, and 840 more severe stroke patients would have access to rehabilitation.
Bluewater Health sees about 180-200 stroke patients per year, Gilmore said.
It also, meanwhile, had the lowest rate of stroke patients staying in hospital beyond the point where they were ready for discharge. What’s called the alternate level of care (ALC) rate for acute stroke patients was 1.6 per cent.
The provincial benchmark is 8.2 per cent.
“Bluewater Health as a larger community hospital really does benefit from having acute stroke unit care and inpatient rehabilitation care within the four walls,” said Gilmore, noting other facilities may have to transfer patients, leading to delays.
Bluewater Health has also worked hard on patient flow, she said.
“I think we’re seeing those benefits with that low level of ALC.”
Areas for improvement include having more community supports outside of hospital for people recovering from stroke, and having more people call 911 when they experience or witness signs or symptoms of stroke, she said.
Those signs and symptoms include weakness, trouble speaking, vision problems, headache and dizziness.
About 59 per cent of Bluewater Health stroke patients in 2015-16 arrived at hospital via ambulance, Gilmore said.
“That is the best way to access the best service if someone is experiencing those signs and symptoms,” she said.
“And we don’t have enough people necessarily doing that.”
tkula@postmedia.com