title: [Development of an acute stroke care pathway in a hospital with stroke unit].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Care pathways (CP) are tools for standardizing the management of patient in certain diseases with a predictable course, and they have demonstrated usefulness in clinical practice. In-hospital stroke CP have been implemented in departments of Neurology, General Medicine or Rehabilitation, however there are few studies developing an integrated CP in hospitals with an acute Stroke Unit (SU). The aim is to develop a CP capable of organizing and homogenizing the stroke assistance, and integrating the quality standards, in a hospital with an Acute Stroke Unit (SU).
  
  
  METHODS
  Members of the Neurology, Rehabilitation, Emergency and Preventive Medicine departments established a schedule of nine fortnightly meetings. Several documents that compound the CP were elaborated following the FOCUS-PDCA model, according with the scientific evidence and the in force clinical guides.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The following documents were elaborated: scientific-technical framework which integrates all processes; information document for patient/relatives on-admission; nurses protocols (social risk, disphagya, falling down risk and pressure ulcers); stroke rehabilitation guidelines for staff; treatment, care and monitoring sheets; recommendations at discharge for patient/relatives; stroke rehabilitation guidelines for patient/relatives; specific didactic units for patient/relatives; patient/relatives satisfaction survey; and quality standard document.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A stroke CP in a hospital with SU potentially promotes a more organized and efficient stroke care, as well as improve the patient/relatives satisfaction.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Neurología, Hospital Universitario La Paz, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martínez-Sánchez
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fuentes
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Medina-Báez
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grande
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Llorente
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Parrilla
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fuster
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gil
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Olguín
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: García-Caballero
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Díez-Tejedor
mesh_terms: D019091:Critical Pathways; D006757:Hospital Units; D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D020521:Stroke / Q000628:therapy*