Dr. Spradlin talks about life with a stroke on Channel 4

Dr. Janet Spradlin, immediate past president of the AHA SouthCentral Affiiliate Board, was recently interviewed on News Channel 4 in Oklahoma City about living life after a stroke. Dr. Spradlin did a great job so please take a few minutes to watch.

Link to story: http://www.kfor.com/videobeta/f706a2c2-3021-4e66-9d73-347c502a3b5f/News/Healthcheck

Oklahoma Heart Institute Recognized as a Top Get With The GuidelinesSM Participant

Oklahoma Heart Institute – Hospital, on the campus of Hillcrest Medical Center, has been recognized for its demonstrated commitment to using evidence-based guidelines to provide the best possible care to patients through the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With the GuidelinesSM (GWTG) program.
Introduced in 2000, GWTG helps hospitals close the gap between recommended treatment and actual treatment of heart patients. Hospitals implementing the quality improvement program generally see measurable results.
Each year, the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recognize hospitals for their success in using GWTG to improve quality of care for heart disease and stroke patients.

Read MORE.

If you’re like most Americans, you have questions about how the new health reform law, the Affordable Care Act, will affect you and your family. The American Heart Association has produced a series of brief videos with questions from real consumers and responses from experts about how the new law will impact patients with heart disease or stroke. Learn more by visiting: http://www.heartsforhealthcare.org/.

Here are some videos that you may find helpful:

"Will health care reform make coverage more affordable for families like mine? How will it work?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr1-92P-Uxs&feature=player_embedded

“How will healthcare reform address the needs of patients like me, who have lost their jobs and employer insurance?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sh-rbM1P3g&feature=player_embedded

"Will the new health reform law make prevention and preventive coverage an integral part of health care and place more emphasis on preventing disease, rather than treating it?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sh-rbM1P3g&feature=player_embedded

Tulsa County says "No Smoking" in county buildings and vehicles

Tulsa County followed Oklahoma County by making their buildings and vehicles smoke free yesterday. You can read more about the vote here  http://tinyurl.com/2bv7dc2


Oklahoma already has a statewide law that prohibits smoking in most workplaces. This policy would prohibit all tobacco not only inside buildings but outside and in the county owned vehicles opperated by their employees.

San Antonio vote puts Oklahoma further behind

Newsok.com posted an editorial today from a Smoke-Free Oklahoma supporter regarding the vote by San Antonio to become the final large city in Texas to be smoke-free. Read more below.

Move by San Antonio places Oklahoma further behind competition


Read more: http://www.newsok.com/move-by-san-antonio-places-oklahoma-further-behind-competition/article/3492662?custom_click=headlines_widget#ixzz0yxAnK7ae

Lee Corso makes first public speaking appearence since stroke

ESPN Analyst, Lee Corso, visited Oklahoma yesterday to speak to a group about life after his stroke. Corso suffered a stroke in May 2009 and this was his first public speaking event since that day.

Consider these statistics from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association:

• Each year about 795,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke. About 600,000 of these are first attacks, and 185,000 are recurrent attacks.
• On average, every 40 seconds someone in the United States has a stroke.
• When considered separately from other cardiovascular diseases, stroke ranks No. 3 among all causes of death, behind diseases of the heart and cancer.
• On average, every three to four minutes someone dies of a stroke.

You can see an interview with Corso on the Newsok.com website here.

White Paper Lays Out the Benefit of Registries

Patient registries—databases of clinical information critical to evaluating care processes and outcomes—can play a critical role in measuring quality and cost of health care, yet they are often limited by shortcomings in design and function. Using registries to advance performance measurement and ultimately improve care will involve finding solutions to what are currently common registry limitations.

The Robert Wood Johnson recently released a white paper that describes solutions for leveraging both administrative and registry data to make additional performance results available, as well as further increase registry use for performance measurement and other purposes.


Read the full report here.


At the beginning of this year a new rule took effect from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS Final FY 2010 Rule) which focuses on improving stroke patient care in hospitals. It requires hospitals submitting Medicare claims for stroke to let CMS know if they participate in a database registry for stroke care, such as that maintained by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke (GWTG-Stroke) quality improvement initiative.  
Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke puts the expertise of the American Stroke Association to work for hospital teams, helping to ensure that the care they provide to stroke patients is aligned with the latest scientific guidelines.
Most hospitals that implement the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke quality improvement program realize measurable results. It’s a difference that shows in the lives of patients and their families, in the satisfaction felt by caregivers empowered to do their best and in the financial health of participating hospitals.