Australian Stroke Coalition Quality Stroke Service awards and Australian WSO Angels awards
Why are there two different types of awards?
The Australian Stroke Coalition (ASC) Quality Stroke Service Awards Program recognises Australian health services that achieve the highest standards for delivering quality in stroke care based on indicators related to the Acute Stroke Clinical Care Standard (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care 2019).
The World Stroke Organization (WSO) in partnership with the ANGELS initiative provides the WSO Angels Awards Program, which aims to recognise and promote best-practice in stroke care globally. We seek to support hospitals to have international, as well as national recognition, for excellence in stroke care. The Angels Initiative in Australia is supported by Boehringer Ingelheim.
The National Awards criteria are more comprehensive and are calculated differently to the WSO Angels Awards criteria, and are based on our National Standards. They also incorporate a measure of quality control (minimal missing data).
Hospitals participating in the AuSCR, or Stroke Foundation’s Acute Services National Stroke Audit, will automatically be considered for the ASC Quality Stroke Service Awards and the WSO Angels Awards, unless they opt out. Hospitals not participating in the AuSCR, that would like to be considered for the ASC Quality Stroke Service Awards or the WSO Angels Awards in a non-Acute National Stroke Audit year, should contact the ASC (asc@strokefoundation.org.au) to arrange for the relevant data from at least 40 consecutive patients to be collected to enable participation.
Please refer here for further information on these Awards schemes.
Who calculates the awards and what oversight is there?
The methods used to calculate both the National Awards and the WSO Angels Awards are overseen by a subcommittee of the ASC. Analysis of the data for both awards is undertaken by an independent team, led by Associate Professor Monique Kilkenny at Monash University. The team from Monash are responsible for analysis of AuSCR and Stroke Foundation National Acute Services Audit data and have the skills and know-how to ensure a standardised and consistent approach.
What are the differences in how the awards are calculated?
The National Awards are based on a composite outcome derived by summarising the proportion of all eligible care opportunities that were fulfilled for the eligible group. Hospital data must also meet the threshold for completeness of data and avoidance of case selection. In contrast, the WSO Angels Awards require a benchmark to be met for each relevant item, which is then summed in order to achieve an award status e.g. gold, platinum, or diamond.
What data collection time period was used for the awards, and why?
For AuSCR hospitals the time period was 1st July 2021 to 31st March 2022.
This time period ensured most hospitals had the minimum number of patient care episodes required for the awards, and provided the most recent and likely to be complete data for consideration.
What was the minimum number of episodes of patient care used for the award calculations?
For the WSO Award, hospitals were required to submit at least 30 consecutive episodes of patient care, consistent with international requirements for this award.
For the ASC Category 1 Award, hospitals were required to submit at least 30 episodes of patient care.
For the ASC Category 2 Awards that pertain to reperfusion therapies, hospitals were required to submit at least 15 episodes of patient care who have been provided intravenous thrombolysis or endovascular clot retrieval.
Was my hospital considered for the awards?
All hospitals participating in the AuSCR, meeting the criteria for the minimum number of episodes of patient care, were considered for the awards, unless they chose to opt-out.
When were the data extracted from the Australian Stroke Data Tool (AuSDaT)?
The AuSCR data were extracted from AuSDaT on 22 August 2022.
My hospital is behind on AuSCR data entry with incomplete data to March 2022, will that exclude us from award eligibility?
No, as long as the minimum number of episodes was completed during the period, your hospital will have been considered for the awards. If clinical details were missing from most episodes in 2022, these time periods were excluded for the award analyses.
If my hospital participates in both the AuSCR and Stroke Foundation National Acute Services Audit, which data are used?
For hospitals participating in both the AuSCR and Stroke Foundation National Acute Services Audit, the awards will be based on the AuSCR data given the dataset is larger and more representative of care at your site.
How can I tell how my hospital performed based on the award criteria? Why didn’t my hospital win an award?
Hospital staff contributing data to the AuSCR, or Stroke Foundation National Acute Services Audit programs will be provided with an individual report showing how their hospital performed against the awards criteria. This may assist hospitals to identify areas to focus on for quality improvement initiatives.