Overview of the program
Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Coverdell Stroke Program is named after the late U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell who passed away in July 2000 as a result of a stroke. Massachusetts has been funded since 2001 and is currently one of nine state health departments funded to participate in the program.
The mission of the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program is to track and improve the quality of care for acute stroke patients; to decrease the rate of premature death and disability from acute stroke through secondary prevention; to increase public awareness of stroke treatment and prevention; and to reduce disparities in acute stroke care by providing underserved populations with better access to care.
The Massachusetts Coverdell Program staff works collaboratively with hospitals, ambulance services and post-acute facilities throughout the Commonwealth, implementing stroke systems of care. Each regional stroke system of care has multiple hospitals, each collaborating with local pre-hospital and post-acute providers to improve processes and transitions of care, to improve stroke outcomes.
For more information on the Coverdell Stroke Program visit: CDC: Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program
Massachsetts Coverdell Stroke Systems of Care
Working to establish comprehensive systems for stroke care which connect Pre-Hospital (EMS), Hospital (acute emergency care), and Post-Hospital (skilled nursing facilities, home care and primary care physicians).
During the pilot phase of the project (2015-2017), five comprehensive systems were established. In the expanded phase of the project (2017-2020), the Massachusetts Coverdell Program will utilize best practices identified by the five pilot projects to upgrade the comprehensive stroke care systems at Coverdell hospitals statewide.
This project encourages the three domains of stroke care to work collaboratively as one system of care. Each of the pilot projects is centralized around the hospital, which serves as the “hub” of the system of care. The hospital is tasked with establishing a working relationship with its affiliate EMS agencies, post-acute rehabilitation centers and skilled nursing facilities, and community home health care agencies and primary care physicians. During this process, each domain (pre-hospital, hospital and post-hospital) is required to participate in data-driven quality improvement projects.
To fulfill the data requirements of the grant, the Coverdell Program is tasked with linking the data from all three domains. This will allow for a stroke patient’s care to be tracked from the moment the EMS agency receives a 9-1-1 call, through the acute care in the hospital emergency room, and to the post-hospital setting, whether it be a rehabilitation center, skilled nursing facility, or to their home.