The 2018 General Assembly passed and the Governor signed legislation, HB1197 and SB867, to amend the Code of Virginia § 32.1-111.15:1 requiring the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) to implement systems for data collection and information sharing, apply evidence-based guidelines for community-based follow-up care, and implement quality improvement initiatives to improve the quality of stroke care. VDH convened a Virginia Stroke Care Quality Improvement (VSCQI) Advisory Group to provide recommendations for quality improvement across the Commonwealth.

In order to gather data to inform interventions, VDH gathered data from the VSCQI Advisory Group through a Stroke Priority Metrics Survey that facilitated ranking metrics by category and subcategory along the continuum of stroke care: prevention/risk factors, pre-hospital, in-hospital, and post-hospital. VDH will use these priority metrics to inform data sources and the respective systems to collect the data from hospitals and emergency medical services (EMS), as well as direct quality improvement initiatives. Hospital and EMS capacity surveys will provide additional data to inform where resources and supports should be focused.

In this report, we outline implementation processes and promising practices under the following requirements of this legislation:

• Implement systems to collect data and information about stroke care;

• Facilitate data sharing and collaboration;

• Apply guidelines for transitioning patients to community-based follow-up care; and

• Establish a process for continuous quality improvement.