What Are We Measuring?
The Get With the Guidelines® (GWTG)-Stroke initiative was launched in 2003 by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. The program measures how well participating hospitals follow guidelines for the latest evidence-based stroke care.
This measure is a composite of eight other GWTG stroke measures that include clinical interventions as well as stroke education and prescribing of medication upon discharge. A patient who received all eight interventions is said to have had “defect-free care.” The measures included are:
- Venous thromboembolism (VTE prophylaxis)
- Assessed for rehabilitation
- Discharged on antithrombotic therapy
- Anticoagulation therapy for atrial fibrillation/flutter
- Thrombolytic therapy
- Antithrombotic therapy by end of hospital day two
- Discharged on statin medication
- Stroke education
This measure reports the percentage of ischemic stroke patients that received all eight interventions and had defect-free care. This is an all-or-nothing measure, and no partial credit is given.
Defect-Free Care
Higher scores are better
