Summary

Description

The results of the SSNAP Acute Organisational Audit 2012 are the first to be published under the auspices of the new national stroke audit, the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP). They contain national and hospital level findings on the organisation of stroke services, in particular acute care organisation, specialist roles, staffing, TIA (mini stroke) services, communication between staff groups and with patients and carers, and pathway at discharge. The results reflect the organisation of stroke services as of 2 July 2012. 100% of eligible hospitals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland participated in the audit. The public tables of named hospital results, available to download below, describe the performance for selected indicators for 163 participating sites in England. The median for each measure is given in the top row of the table to enable benchmarking. NB the national median reflects the results of 190 participating sites in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A scoring system was developed to enable sites to compare their organisation of stroke care with other sites. The scores for 8 separate components of organisation each range from 0 to 100 with 100 being the optimal score. A total organisational score is obtained by calculating the average of the 8 domain scores. The 25% of hospitals with the best stroke care organisation are in the upper quartile, the least well organised 25% of hospitals are in the lower quartile. The middle half lie between the two. NB the quartile position is based on the performance of 190 participating sites in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The table of named hospital results should be read in context as part of the full SSNAP Acute Organisational Audit Report 2012 which can be downloaded below and the full audit questions (appendix 2 of the full report). This full report enables the organisation of stroke services at national level to be compared with national standards outlined in the fourth edition of the National Clinical Guideline for Stroke (2012) published by the Intercollegiate Stroke Working Party and the NICE Clinical Guideline, the National Stroke Strategy 2007 and the NICE Quality Standard for Stroke (2010).