The ninth report from the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) reveals today that 11 stroke services scored an overall ‘A’-grade for the quality of care they provide for patients, demonstrating that a world class service is achievable.
Reaching such levels is a considerable achievement and what these latest results show is that, although the audit sets the bar high to attain a top grade, it is possible. These standards have been set to encourage hospitals to both identify where improvements are needed and drive change.
It is also encouraging to see yet another decrease in the number of services scoring an ‘E’ across the quarter, alongside a notable increase in those obtaining the highest two bandings on SSNAP. These changes reflect the continued efforts of providers to improve stroke care for patients in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The report published today relates to patients admitted between January and March 2015 and includes named hospital results for the entire inpatient care pathway. The results are available online at the SSNAP Results Portal.
Pippa Tyrrell, Associate Director of the RCP Stroke Programme, said:
Measuring the quality of care is an essential component for quality improvement. The SSNAP audit provides very high quality information that can help professionals, patients, and commissioners use and develop their services for the future.
SSNAP is the first national stroke register in the world to collect information across the entire stroke pathway, from admittance to hospital, through care provided in the post-acute setting, to the six month follow-up appointment. SSNAP aims to improve stroke care by measuring the quality of services against evidence-based standards and supporting staff to make improvements. SSNAP results are updated every three months, and cover all hospitals treating stroke patients in England and Wales, together with three hospitals in Northern Ireland. It is the most comprehensive and reliable source of information about the performance of stroke services.
SSNAP is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP)*, as part of the National Clinical Audit Programme (NCA)*. The audit is led by the Royal College of Physicians, Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit on behalf of the Intercollegiate Stroke Working Party.
As in the eighth report, it is encouraging to see key improvements in the national results for stroke care both in the first 72 hours of care and in the standards and processes of care by discharge, since data collection began.
Participation in the audit continues to be an unprecedented success. In the latest quarter, 19,865 patient records were submitted for analysis within the 72 hour results – this is 97% of the expected stroke cases in this period – while the majority of stroke services are now achieving the highest case ascertainment band.
The quality of data submitted to SSNAP has also improved each quarter, which is essential in providing robust and meaningful results. However, there remains unacceptable variation across the country. SSNAP has moved to absolute measurement of results which means that all teams are capable of showing improvement.
For further information, please contact Joanna Morgan, Care Quality Improvement Department, Communications Manager, on +44 (0)20 3075 1354, or email Joanna.Morgan@rcplondon.ac.uk
- This report contains complete data for stroke patients admitted to and/or stroke patients discharged from inpatient care between 1 January and 31 March 2015. The 11 ‘A’-grades are out of 202 inpatient teams who submitted enough data to receive an overall SSNAP score for the quarter.
- SSNAP is leading the way in supporting the data transparency agenda and future improvements in stroke care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Transparency and open data is a government initiative that aims to publish information about clinical services and outcomes and so enable patients, staff, academics and others to make informed decisions about healthcare services.
- The SSNAP audit report is available here: SSNAP Results Portal.
- There are various data visualisation resources that exhibit SSNAP’s latest results, including: interactive maps (available here), regionalised performance tables, slideshows, and ‘Easy Access Version’ reports designed for, and developed with, patients, families and carers.
* About HQIP, the National Clinical Audit Programme and how it is funded.
The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) is led by a consortium of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the Royal College of Nursing and National Voices. Its aim is to promote quality improvement and, in particular, to increase the impact that clinical audit has on healthcare quality in England and Wales. HQIP holds the contract to manage and develop the National Clinical Audit Programme, comprising more than 30 clinical audits that cover care provided to people with a wide range of medical, surgical and mental health conditions. The programme is funded by NHS England, the Welsh Government and, with some individual audits, also funded by the Health Department of the Scottish Government, DHSSPS Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands.