Clinical Councils Begin to Define Areas of Improvement for the Ayer Neuroscience Institute

The Stroke, Neuro-spine and Epilepsy Clinical Councils have begun to hold meetings and find ways to improve quality of care across the institute. The councils continue to update and define their quality metrics for the council’s dashboard with help from Dr. Rocco Orlando, Pepper Sobieski and their team. The Stroke Council celebrated its one year anniversary and the Neuro-Spine and Epilepsy Council began meeting in January of 2017. The Clinical Councils for the Headache and Chase Family Movement Disorders Center will begin to meet within the next few months.

Stroke

The Stroke Council worked on six key initiatives related to quality and access to care for stroke patients across Hartford HealthCare. The Stroke Council has successfully completed two of the six initiatives. The first initiative identified that a Nurse Navigator serving as a patient advocate, educator and key point of contact across the continuum of care was needed. The Stroke Center Nurse Navigator for the Ayer Neuroscience Institute at Hartford Hospital was created and implemented in February of 2017. The Council looks forward to further developing our excellent stroke team by working collaboratively to ensure efficient transitions of care.

The Stroke Council also identified the need to standardize the process for the administration of Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA) for stroke patients. The second initiative the Council successfully implemented is the standardized protocol for tPA so patients now receive tPA the same way in all Emergency Departments throughout Hartford HealthCare.

Neuro-Spine

The Neuro-Spine Council has developed a robust quality dashboard that will be used to drive discussions and initiatives moving forward.  Twenty quality metrics are being tracked and have been identified as key areas to focus on. Quality metrics such as Neurosurgery Spine mortality, morbidity and infection rates are being monitored. The Council has also developed and inventory of services provided to patients to define focus areas for improvement.

Epilepsy

The Epilepsy Clinical Council has identified six key areas of focus to improve the quality of care of epilepsy patients, while driving optimal outcomes and patient experience across all phases of the continuum. The Council has completed an inventory of services related to Epilepsy care to define areas for improvement. In addition, to creating a dashboard with metrics to begin to track and monitor performance.