title: Redesigning care for the nonhemorrhagic stroke patient.
abstract: Stroke patients, with their wide variety of needs, pose a complex care challenge to the health care provider. Trajectories of the patient's experience with the entire episode of illness, as well as ideal outcomes were used to redesign care for stroke patients. A multidisciplinary team including patients, pastoral care, social work, physicians, rehabilitation services and home health nurses designed a process to insure continuity of care across settings. Critical paths, discharge instructions and other tools were designed to facilitate care coordination within the acute phase of illness. Goals were to improve patient and team satisfaction, improve resource utilization and facilitate coordinated patient progress through the health care system. While this process was used to improve care of the stroke patient, the designed template can be used to direct redesign efforts for other selected patient populations as well.
authors.affiliation: Providence Portland Medical Center, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dancer
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000451:nursing* / Q000517:prevention & control; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019091:Critical Pathways / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010351:Patient Discharge; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration