Changing the Face of Stroke Recovery

About every 45 seconds in America, someone suffers a stroke.  In fact, more than 780,000 people suffer a stroke each year, and estimates put the number of families impacted by stroke survivor at more than 6 million.  It is the 3rd  leading cause of disability in the US.

Because we work with many stroke survivors and their families, we wanted to take a serious look at recovery, the side of the story less often told.  This post is the first in a four part series focused on what we learned as we took a fresh look at what we thought we knew.

First, we were reminded when it comes to stroke recovery, outcomes matter.   Consequently, we reviewed the stroke outcomes at our Destination HealthCare Stroke Recovery™ provider, First Teaching Hospital in Tianjin, and those reported by US providers.  To ensure a fair comparison, we used three major resources: US News & World Report’s Best Hospitals in America as a source for the best neurological hospitals, Healthgrade’s ratings of stroke care, and the American Stroke Association’s 2010 report.

Here’s how First Teaching Hospital compares with the top five neurology specialty hospitals in America as ranked by US News & World Report along with their Healthgrade rating.  We elected to use the neurology hospitals, rather than rehabilitation hospitals rated by US News & World Report, because the latter are ranked solely on the basis of reputation.

Hospital	Number of Stroke Cases	Number of Hospital Admissions	Healthgrade Review of Outcomes[1]
First Teaching Hospital	358,000	1,867,380	Best[2]
Mayo Clinic	4,000	514,000	As Expected
Johns Hopkins Hospital	Not available	97,440	As Expected
University of California Hospital (San Francisco)	Not available	29,043(inpatient only)	As Expected
Massachusetts General Hospital	1,303	1,500,000	Poor
NY – Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia & Cornell	Not available	114,628	Best

When it comes to your recovery, we know good isn’t good enough.

While access and affordability are important, we understand that a premier outcome must be foremost.  We monitor patient results, in person and through reviews of records, using 16 separate factors.  The table below shows five of the key criteria in comparison to results reported by the American Stroke Association and others.

THE DESTINATION HEALTHCARE DIFFERENCE™

Criterion	Destination HealthCare Stroke Recovery™	United States
Walking without assistance	85%	51%
Balance (Able to rise from seated position to standing with no assistance)	85%	Not reported
Improvement in cognitive function	80%	74%
Number of medications	54% of patients reduced      number of medications 46% require no further  medications	Not reported
Return to home	98%	68%

We were interested to find that two of the five items above and 12 of the total 16 criteria have no US corresponding outcome.  We thought we were missing something until we spoke with the Centers for Disease Control National Institute of Health Statistics, which confirmed the absence of standard reporting.

We wondered why.  The rather surprising answers emerged from some unexpected sources, leading one therapist to say, “If people in the US knew these kinds of results were possible, no one would put up with [these results].”

Read more of the rather surprising answer in part 2.

For the complete statistical report, please visit www.chinaconnection.cc.

[1] 2010 Hospital Quality Ratings: Stroke, Healthgrade
[2] Based on independent assessment using Healthgrade criteria

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