A New Standard for Comprehensive Stroke Care

Recently, California-based Loma Linda University Medical Center set out to become the first Joint Commission-certified Comprehensive Stroke Center in the region. They wanted to make it as easy as possible for clinicians to find the information they need and make the best choices at each critical moment of stroke care. To that end, they upgraded their build to capture 90 different data elements that contribute to stroke care and embed them into relevant Epic tools, from SmartTexts and flowsheets to well-integrated notes and decision support.

Since implementing their new program, Loma Linda has seen a 240% increase in stroke patients cared for each month and increased their documentation of several stroke-related metrics to 100%. Thanks to this project and several other notable case studies, Loma Linda UMC was awarded HIMSS Stage 7 recognition in December of 2017.

When the Joint Commission evaluators came to rate the stroke center, the reaction they gave was more than Loma Linda had hoped for. “It turns out, we’re considered the best in the country,” said Grace Cheng, the primary builder for Loma Linda’s stroke center. “They stated that we had the most robust and comprehensive system they’d ever seen, and that our solution should be the model for all other hospitals to learn from.”

Epic community members can read more in Loma Linda’s Success at Seven newsletter.