Abstract WP392: Reducing Readmissions through Secondary Stroke Prevention Clinics

Introduction: Secondary Stroke Prevention Clinics (SPCs) were established in Ontario to provide the opportunity for appropriate patients to access best practice stroke care approaches to reduce the risk of recurrent stroke/TIA. Previous evaluations have shown that SPCs provide high quality care based on evidence-based performance measures; however the impact of SPCs on readmission rates has not been examined. Information on the proportion of patients who are readmitted to hospital for stroke/TIA after being seen at an SPC is important to understanding the role of SPCs in preventing stroke/TIA in Ontario. Methods: The Ontario Stroke Registry’s SPIRIT-SPC database was used to identify patients with presumed stroke/TIA referred to 13 SPCs between January 2007 and April 2011. Patients with a first clinic visit and an index stroke/TIA event between January 2007 and September 2010 were linked to Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) inpatient database to calculate stroke-related readmission rates. Patients with elective admissions were excluded. The rates were based on the four years of data and were age- and sex- adjusted. Results: The study included 15,163 patients from SPIRIT-SPC seen at 13 SPCs in Ontario. The mean age was 66 years (±14) and 49.3% of patients were female. Seventy-eight percent (n= 11,777) of patients had an index stroke/TIA event reported on the SPC referral and of these only 60% (n = 9,040) had an ED visit or inpatient admission record in the CIHI databases capturing the index stroke/TIA event. The median time from referral to initial visit was 11 days. The stroke/TIA 30-, 90- and 180-day readmission rates following the SPC first visit were 0.7%, 1.3% and 1.8%, respectively. Variation in readmission rates across 13 SPCs ranged from 0 - 6%. Conclusion: Stroke/TIA-related readmission rates among patients seen at the 13 SPCs in Ontario patients are lower than what is reported in the literature and lower than observed among patients discharged from acute hospitals following a stroke/TIA ED visit or in-hospital stay. The lower rates observed at the 13 clinics may reflect less severe patients being seen at SPCs. Risk-adjusted models will be taken into consideration for future studies.