Background: Riks-Stroke, the Swedish national quality register on stroke care, provides unique opportunities to evaluate stroke units in routine clinical care.
Methods: Basic patient characteristics, process indicators and outcome variables are recorded in all 85 hospitals admitting acute stroke patients. A 3-month follow-up is included.
Results: There are wide variations between hospitals in the proportion of patients admitted to a stroke unit, in secondary prevention and in the proportion of patients in institutional care at 3 months. Even after adjustment for available prognostic indicators, case fatality is lower and functional outcome is better in patients treated in stroke units than in patients treated in general wards.
Conclusion: Riks-Stroke shows that outcome is consistently better in patients treated in a stroke unit than in general wards, not only in randomised trials but also in routine stroke care.
Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel