MedStar Washington Hospital Center

U.S. News Stroke Scorecard

(Hospitals that earned a high performing rating were significantly better than the national average.)

Quality Indicators

• Survival: Relative survival 30 days after hospitalization for stroke, compared to other hospitals treating similar patients.
• Discharging patients directly to home: How often patients can go directly home from the hospital rather than being discharged to another facility. Recovery at home is preferred by most patients and families.
• Reperfusion therapy: Percentage of stroke patients treated with reperfusion therapy (Greater than 10% = Above average amount of therapy provided). This measure quantifies how often the hospital provided time-sensitive medical intervention such as intravenous tissue plasminogen activator or mechanical thrombectomy.
• Number of patients: Relative volume of Medicare inpatients age 65 and over who had this procedure or condition in 2015-2019. Higher volume is associated with better outcomes.
• Nurse staffing: More nursing care per patient is associated with better outcomes and better patient experience.
• Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Specialists: Whether the hospital has at least one adult intensive-care unit staffed by a doctor specifically certified or trained to care for ICU patients.
• Public transparency: Whether hospital publicly shared its stroke data through the American Heart Association. Hospitals participating in transparency programs foster sharing of data and adoption of best practices.

*Source: U.S. News

Stroke Volume

The Joint Commission collaborates with the American Heart Association (AHA)/American Stroke Association (ASA) to develop performance measures for Primary Stroke Centers, the first advanced-level certification program that is designed to recognize primary stroke centers that make exceptional efforts to foster better outcomes for stroke patient care. MedStar Washington Hospital Center has received the American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke Gold Performance Achievement Award for 5 consecutive years by reaching the goal of treating stroke patients with 85% or higher compliance to core standard levels of care.

Stroke National Performance Measures

Additional stroke performance measures for procedures and interventions at MedStar Washington Hospital Center (2019):

• Serious complication rates for carotid endarterectomy and carotid stenting are better than the national benchmark (<6% for symptomatic ICA stenosis and <3% for asymptomatic ICA stenosis).
• Serious complication rates for diagnostic cerebral angiogram are better than the national benchmark (<1%).