Saudi Stroke Standards

Networked care delivery Purpose: To deliver integrated stroke care for standardized, seamless and cost effective stroke care to patients within a specific catchment area. Rationale:  Evidence from other countries suggests networked delivery of care is cost effective and improves patient outcomes  Networks can improve the utilization of resources and reduce unwarranted variation in care Standards: 1. Each network should establish at least one Comprehensive Stroke Hospital along with a network of either Primary or Acute Stroke Ready Hospitals or both. 2. Each network should develop a public and patient education campaign to help improve timely diagnosis and transfer to appropriate stroke hospitals. 3. Each network should develop links with out of hospital services such as Primary care, EMS (ambulance services), Rehabilitation, Long Term and Palliative care services to ensure consistent use of standards and sharing of patient data. 4. Each network should set up a multi-disciplinary clinical committee, to oversee the delivery of stroke care, this committee should include professionals from all appropriate stroke care facilities, including hospitals and other relevant facilities. 4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3751976/ Chapter 3. Community activation Objectives 1. To improve public and professional awareness of the risk factors and symptoms of a stroke, and what action to take. 2. To ensure that people who experience a stroke are at the center of decisions about their treatment and are involved in the design of services. Key facts  Stroke is the second largest cause of deaths in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Based on expert opinion, it is estimated that the 2018 incidence of stroke is (75/100,000) in Saudi Arabia.  There are approximately 24,000 strokes per year in Saudi Arabia.  There has been a 103% increase in the incidence of stroke between 1990 and 2018.  High blood pressure (26.1%) and Diabetes (13.1%) are the biggest preventable risk factors for stroke. Introduction Lack of awareness of stroke is a significant problem. People do not know what a stroke is, what the symptoms are, or that it is a treatable condition that warrants the same response as a heart attack. Additionally, people are unaware of the potential risk of themselves having a stroke, how to reduce that risk, or that stroke is largely preventable. Knowledge about stroke is also low among health and social care professionals. A study into ‘Knowledge and Attitude of Stroke Among Saudi Population in Riyadh’, suggested that cultural and educational strategies to improve knowledge about stroke in Riyadh community was needed. Considerable efforts should be planned to increase awareness about stroke, especially with low income and low-educated population.5 To initiate an emergency response to a suspected stroke, it is crucial that staff who have contact with the public (including GP receptionists, EMS call handlers, hospital triage staff, social care staff and allied health professionals) are able to recognize the symptoms of stroke or TIA, even when they cannot see the individual, and that they all share a common understanding of the importance of dealing with stroke as rapidly as possible. 5 http://www.ijasrjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MS36xx-17.pdf QM