CHRISTUS Southeast Texas Jasper Memorial TeleStroke Case Study
ABOUT
CHRISTUS Southeast Texas Jasper Memorial is a 59-bed hospital serving Rural East Texas residents. Located approximately 65 miles north of Beaumont and 60 miles south of Lufkin, Jasper Memorial is a general medical/surgical hospital with medical imaging, laboratory, and outpatient services.
THE CHALLENGE
Over the past few years, Jasper has experienced an upward trend in stroke volumes. In 2023, a performance improvement review identified delays in activating stroke alerts for triage/walk-in patients, with only 50% of alerts activated within 10 minutes of arrival. In the same timeframe, Jasper’s door-to-the-needle (DTN) time for thrombolytic candidates averaged just over 57 minutes, with a median time closer to 46 minutes.
THE SOLUTION
Key strategies were implemented, including educating non-clinical staff on the BEFAST screening tool, immediate RN notification if a patient presents BEFAST+ with a simultaneous stroke alert activation and specific follow-up on outliers.
THE OUTCOME
As of August 2024, CHRISTUS Jasper has had a 54% improvement in door-to-activation times. There has also been a 22% increase in patients with stroke symptoms arriving via triage/walk-in and having a stroke alert activated within 10 minutes of arrival. As a result of improving DTN activation, Jasper has improved the DTN average by 45%. In August 2024, Jasper set a facility record by administering thrombolytic within 20 minutes of a patient’s arrival.
2023 Metrics
- Total Stroke Alerts 183
- PV Activation < 10 min: 50%
- Total thrombolytic cases: 8
- DTN avg. 57.01
- DTN med. 46.13
- DTN < 30 minutes: 0%
- DTN < 45 minutes: 50%
- DTN < 60 minutes: 75%
2024 Metrics 01/01 – 08/31
- Total Stroke Alerts 274
- PV Activation < 10 min: 72%
- Total thrombolytic cases: 14
- DTN avg. 31.33
- DTN med. 26.50
- DTN < 30 minutes: 58%
- DTN < 45 minutes: 83%
- DTN < 60 minutes: 100%