Best Practice News

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.

Community and Outpatient Stroke Rehabilitation Provincial Workgroup Report 

Stroke rehabilitation in the community and outpatient setting was identified as a provincial priority by the eleven regional stroke networks in Fall 2016 and the following resources are now available here  

The 11th World Stroke Congress took place in Montreal in Oct 2018 bringing together leading international stroke experts.

The Stroke Network of SEO teams were engaged in the delivery of presentations related to Stroke Prevention Clinic core elements, Endovascular Thrombectomy, Acute Stroke Unit care, innovations in rehabilitation, and the evaluation of stroke care in Complex Continuing Care and LTC settings, a true cross-continuum contribution! 

A year ago KHSC expanded access to its Stroke Endovascular Thrombectomy Service  from weekday to 24/7 delivery. This move to round-the-clock service was a big step that required an incredible commitment from many across the region including referring hospitals, paramedic services and the large and growing team of experts within KHSC.  Over the past year, we have learned that we can indeed deliver this complex service successfully with great outcomes for patients across Southeastern Ontario.