Treatment Forms Promote Better Care for Stroke Patients

Care for stroke patients appears to improve significantly in hospitals where standardized treatment forms are completed by attending physicians and nurses, a new study suggests.

Creating a template to help caregivers outline, reference and track the use of optimal care for stroke patients greatly increases the use of lifesaving treatments, according to researchers with the California Acute Stroke Pilot Registry.

"I think this kind of thing has worked in other disease areas, so it's not too surprising that it seems to work for stroke treatment," said study author Dr. S. Claiborne Johnston, director of the University of California, San Francisco Stroke Service. "We were surprised, though, at how much of an improvement we could see vs. how little effort was involved."

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