Best Practice News

The ACT-FAST is a large vessel occlusion triage tool used to screen for EVT eligibility. This screening tool is being used by hospitals across southeastern Ontario to guide decision making for triaging patients arriving in the ED between 6-24 hours from stroke symptom onset.

The Primary Care and Stroke Prevention Clinic CME held February 5th 2020 was well-received with 55 health care providers attending from across the South East. The post evaluations were positive with some comments indicating that the content was “usable” and “would like to attend more of these events.”

3 Stroke Prevention Provincial Resources were recently developed to help tackle main gaps identified in the Secondary Stroke Prevention Clinic Core Elements self-assessments completed in 2018/19.

QHC opened its Integrated Stroke Unit (ISU) for both acute and rehabilitation care a year ago, on Dec 11, 2018. QHC, the designated District Stroke Centre for Quinte, provides inpatient care to stroke patients requiring both acute and rehabilitation services at its Belleville General Hospital site. 

The Canadian Stroke Congress took place in Ottawa in Oct 2019 bringing together leading stroke experts from across Canada and beyond. Teams delivered presentations and posters to share an impressive array of learning from across the continuum of stroke care within Southeastern Ontario.

Work began in the spring to identify core best practice elements and processes that support the stroke patient’s journey with a focus on the elements between care settings or transitions. The Acute Rehabilitation and Community (ARC) Pathway was developed along with a team self –assessment tool.  Each team from acute care to the community, completed a self-assessment process to review elements that support best practice and facilitate the patient journey.

New evidence (DAWN and DEFUSE 3) indicates that highly selected patients with severe ischemic stroke may benefit from stroke Endovascular Thrombectomy (EVT) between 6-24 hours of clearly defined stroke symptom onset.  In response to the extended time window, Emergency Departments and Paramedic Services collaborated with the Stroke Network of Southeastern Ontario to implement the ACT-FAST algorithm. The ACT-FAST is a large vessel occlusion screen for EVT eligibility being used to guide decision making for triaging patients arriving in the Emergency Department.

An Acute Stroke Care Collaborative event on June 26th brought together 24 health care professionals from Stroke Units at Quinte Health Care, Brockville General Hospital, and Kingston Health Sciences Centre.  The one-hour event provided an opportunity to receive an update on new stroke best practices, learn about the Integrated Stroke Unit at QHC, and discuss transitions between acute care hospitals.

The following are offered free from the Apasia Institute:

Introduction to Supported Conversation for Adults with Aphasia (SCA™) eLearning: A short self-paced online module.  The module includes practical and video examples of concrete techniques using this evidence-based method.

A provincial workgroup of clinical experts was tasked with updating the Stroke Prevention Clinic Model of care in Ontario. The workgroup identified resources including strategies to implement best practice core elements in Secondary Stroke Prevention Clinics and to enhance system-wide performance and outcomes for people with TIA and stroke. The work has been completed and the compilation of resources was released on January 30th.