Substantial Progress Yet Significant Opportunity for Improvement in Stroke Care in China.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Stroke is a leading cause of death in China. Yet the adherence to guideline-recommended ischemic stroke performance metrics in the past decade has been previously shown to be suboptimal. Since then, several nationwide stroke quality management initiatives have been conducted in China. We sought to determine whether adherence had improved since then.


METHODS
Data were obtained from the 2 phases of China National Stroke Registries, which included 131 hospitals (12 173 patients with acute ischemic stroke) in China National Stroke Registries phase 1 from 2007 to 2008 versus 219 hospitals (19 604 patients) in China National Stroke Registries phase 2 from 2012 to 2013. Multiple regression models were developed to evaluate the difference in adherence to performance measure between the 2 study periods.


RESULTS
The overall quality of care has improved over time, as reflected by the higher composite score of 0.76 in 2012 to 2013 versus 0.63 in 2007 to 2008. Nine of 13 individual performance metrics improved. However, there were no significant improvements in the rates of intravenous thrombolytic therapy and anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation. After multivariate analysis, there remained a significant 1.17-fold (95% confidence interval, 1.14-1.21) increase in the odds of delivering evidence-based performance metrics in the more recent time periods versus older data. The performance metrics with the most significantly increased odds included stroke education, dysphagia screening, smoking cessation, and antithrombotics at discharge.


CONCLUSIONS
Adherence to stroke performance metrics has increased over time, but significant opportunities remain for further improvement. Continuous stroke quality improvement program should be developed as a national priority in China.
['Li|Zixiao|Z|', 'Wang|Chunjuan|C|', 'Zhao|Xingquan|X|', 'Liu|Liping|L|', 'Wang|Chunxue|C|', 'Li|Hao|H|', 'Shen|Haipeng|H|', 'Liang|Li|L|', 'Bettger|Janet|J|', 'Yang|Qing|Q|', 'Wang|David|D|', 'Wang|Anxin|A|', 'Pan|Yuesong|Y|', 'Jiang|Yong|Y|', 'Yang|Xiaomeng|X|', 'Zhang|Changqing|C|', 'Fonarow|Gregg C|GC|', 'Schwamm|Lee H|LH|', 'Hu|Bo|B|', 'Peterson|Eric D|ED|', 'Xian|Ying|Y|', 'Wang|Yilong|Y|', 'Wang|Yongjun|Y|', '|||']
D000368:Aged D002681:China D005260:Female D019983:Guideline Adherence D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D011787:Quality of Health Care D012042:Registries D020521:Stroke
stroke China registries hospitals quality improvement