The South West (SW) LHIN has the highest number of acute hospital sites (28) in Ontario and all of these facilities care for stroke survivors. The SW LHIN admits an average of 1416 stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) patients per year to its hospitals. Of these hospitals, there are 3 designated stroke centres and 1 telestroke hospital.
Stroke survivors require timely access to thrombolysis, treatment on an acute stroke unit, specialized stroke rehabilitation either in hospital and/or in the community and treatment by health care professionals with expertise in stroke care. In order to achieve better patient outcomes, stroke survivors must be treated in facilities with a sufficient critical mass and currently only 1 facility in the LHIN meets the critical mass outlined by the QBP Clinical Handbook for Stroke.
The project will examine stroke care services across the LHIN and determine the type and level of services required to meet the needs of the population according to best practice. Acute stroke care, inpatient stroke rehabilitation as well as community based rehabilitation will be the focus of the capacity assessment. Recommendations for the realignment of stroke services across the LHIN will be delivered to the SW LHIN Board of Directors by March 2015.