Abstract 8: Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Program Participation and Clinical Outcomes for Medicare Beneficiaries

Background: Get With The Guidelines (GWTG)-Stroke is a national, hospital-based quality improvement program developed by the American Heart Association. While studies have shown a beneficial effect of hospital participation in GWTG-Stroke upon processes of care, whether there are associated improvements in clinical outcomes has not been previously investigated. Methods: From among all acute care US hospitals, we matched 366 hospitals that joined the GWTG-Stroke program between April 2004 and December 2007, with 366 hospitals that did not. Matching was based on ischemic stroke case volume, calendar year, baseline hospital post-stroke 1-year all-cause mortality rates, teaching status, and geographic region. Outcomes of all acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients admitted to the study hospitals were abstracted from the CMS administrative claims database (65 years and older). Outcomes at matched hospitals were compared in the PRE-GWTG-Stroke period (-540 to -181 days before program launch), RUN-UP period (-180- to -1 day), EARLY period (0 to 180 days) and SUSTAINED period (181 to 540 days). Additional analysis was performed of the entire BEFORE (-540 to -1 days) and AFTER periods (0 to 540 days). The main analytical approach was stratified Cox proportional hazard modeling, with matched site ID at stratum. We adjusted for patient characteristics (age, gender, race, medical history) and hospital characteristics (rural vs. urban, # beds, annual IS discharges.) Results: The study analyzed 88,584 AIS admissions at the 366 GWTG-Stroke hospitals and 85,401 admissions at the 366 matched non-GWTG-Stroke hospitals. In adjusted analysis comparing BEFORE and AFTER periods, GWTG-Stroke hospitals achieved reduced 30 day mortality (30M - HR 0.911, p<0.0001), reduced 1 year mortality (1YM - HR 0.902, p<0.0001), reduced 30 day all-cause rehospitalization (HR 0.956, p=0.013), reduced 30 day stroke rehospitalization (HR 0.927, p=0.038), and reduced 1 year all-cause rehospitalization (HR 0.972, p=0.007). Conversely, matched, non-GWTG-Stroke hospitals showed only reduced 30M (HR 0.954, p=0.010) between the BEFORE and AFTER periods. Comparing the degree of change at GWTG-Stroke with non-GWTG Stroke hospitals, there were greater improvements in discharge to home (DCH), 30M, and 1YM at GWTG-Stroke hospitals in each of the intervention periods: EARLY: DCH, HR 1.090, p<0.0001; 30M, HR 0.894, p=0.0006; 1YM, HR 0.889, p<0.0001; SUSTAINED: DCH, HR 1.097, p<0.0001; 30M, HR 0.934, p=0.004; 1YM, HR 0.918, p<0.0001. Conclusions: Hospitals joining the GWTG-Stroke quality improvement program between 2004-2008 achieved significantly greater improvement in stroke patient outcomes than matched hospitals not joining the program, with lower all-cause mortality at 30 days and 1 year and higher rates of discharge directly to home.