Stroke Care Quality

In This Section

Time is Brain.

When you have a stroke, the blood flow to your brain is interrupted or reduced. The overall speed of your treatment is critical. The faster your blocked artery can be opened, and the clot removed, the greater likelihood you will have a good outcome.

WellSpan Health’s integrated stroke care system offers the benefits of a rapid diagnosis and specialized treatment through its certified Comprehensive Stroke Center at WellSpan York Hospital and its certified Primary Stroke Centers at WellSpan Chambersburg, WellSpan Ephrata Community, WellSpan Gettysburg, WellSpan Good Samaritan and WellSpan Waynesboro hospitals.

What Does This Mean for Patients?

Stroke teams arrive at a patient’s bedside within 15 minutes of arrival at every WellSpan hospital.

Our Primary Stroke Centers all have advanced imaging systems that can help doctors quickly diagnose a patient’s type of stroke and offer the right kind of care.

For patients with complex needs, WellSpan York Hospital’s Comprehensive Stroke Center has specially trained neurosurgeons who can perform advanced, life-saving procedures. The hospital also has a neuroscience intensive care unit that offers the highest level of critical care a patient may require.

Stroke -Center -Locations

Results of Our Program (2023 data)

One of the core metrics of a high-quality stroke program is the prompt administration of alteplase (tPA) to appropriate patients.This medication helps dissolve clots that cause acute ischemic stroke.

Alteplase (tPA) administration: Percent of patients who receive alteplase (tPA) in less than 60 minutes of hospital arrival. The 2020 American Heart Association goal was to achieve greater than 75 percent of appropriate administration of alteplase (tPA) within 60 minutes.

Rate of alteplase (tPA) administration: Percent of patients who arrive at the emergency department with signs and symptoms of stroke who receive alteplase (tPA) administration. National averages are 11.5 percent. Certified stroke centers such as those at WellSpan hospitals have shown the ability to provide prompt care due to well-organized stroke systems and processes.

Hospital	60 min alteplase (tPA) administration	Rate of alteplase (tPA) administration
WellSpan York Hospital	95.8%	9.4%
WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital	100%	11.8%
WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital	94%	8%
WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital	90%	20%
WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital	86%	15%
WellSpan Waynesboro Hospital	75%	14%

All eligible patients received alteplase (tPA) administration at all six WellSpan hospitals during the reporting period. This data underscores why getting to an Emergency Department within 4.5 hours of symptoms starting — the window for starting tPA administration — is so important.

Endovascular Quality Data: Endovascular intervention is a non-surgical treatment for stroke when a blood vessel in the brain becomes blocked by a blood clot preventing oxygen from reaching brain tissue.

Outcome Measure	WellSpan York Hospital	National Rate
Door to puncture in less than 90 minutes of hospital arrival: This number shows the percentage of patients whose artery is punctured within 90 minutes of arriving to the hospital so the procedure can begin to remove the clot from the patients clogged artery	74.3%	66.1%
Door to Reperfusion in less than 150 minutes from hospital arrival: This number shows the percentage of patients whose blood vessel is opened up within 150 minutes of arriving at the hospital	79.4%	70.6%
Patients achieving reperfusion grade greater than or equal to TICI 2b: This number shows the percentage of patients whose blood vessel is opened up to at least 50%-99% of the expected area during the procedure	91.4%	86.2%