Legislation To Establish Primary Stroke Centers in Illinois

“Why do people with heart attacks get treated immediately while someone with symptoms of a stroke can wait in the Emergency Room for hours?”
a frequent question asked by stroke survivors and their families….


For the last several years the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, has been working to answer this question. Stroke is a significant cause of death in the United States and in Illinois. Over 700,000 Americans experience a new or recurrent stroke each year, and stroke remains the third leading cause of death in the United States when considered independently from other cardiovascular diseases. Stroke also remains a leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States.

Despite significant efforts in recent years by various stakeholders in the stroke community to improve clinical outcomes for stroke patients, it is clear that the current fragmented approach to stroke care fails to provide a comprehensive, effective and efficient system. Studies have found that stroke patients are less likely to die or require long-term institutional care when an integrated systems approach to stroke care is used. The deficiencies of the current approach to stroke care are attributable in large part to inadequate linkages and coordination among the fundamental components of a stroke system. These components include public education and primary prevention; notification and response of emergency medical services; acute stroke treatment, including hyper-acute and emergency department treatment; sub-acute stroke treatment and secondary prevention; and rehabilitation.

The first step to addressing these issues should be the passage of House Bill 4699. Here is a link to the test of the bill (currently listed as Amendment 1): http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=4699&GAID=9&GA=95&DocTypeID=HB&LegID=35416&SessionID=51

This bill is sponsored by State Rep. Bob Biggins who happens to be a stroke survivor. He deserves lots of kudos for being the legislative champion on this key issue. Please let me know (mep@heart.org) if you want his contact info.

As currently drafted the bill does the following:

A hospital shall be recognized by the state of Illinois as a Primary Stroke Center if it has been certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospital Organizations or any national accrediting body whose standards, at a minimum, are those of the Brain Attack Coalition, a group of professional, voluntary and governmental entities dedicated to reducing the occurrence, disabilities and death associated with stroke.

· IDPH shall adopt a Stroke care assessment tool that shall be implemented by each licensed Emergency Medical Services Provider. The tool shall include regional transport plans for the triage and transport of stroke patients to the closest, most appropriate facility, including the bypass of health care facilities not designated as Primary Stroke Centers when it is safe to do so.

· In addition to being posted on IDPH’s website, each Primary Stroke Center is mandated to report to IDPH data concerning the number of patients evaluated, those receiving acute interventional therapy, the amount of time from patient presentation to delivery of therapy, and other quality and outcome indicators.

· IDPH is authorized to award grants, subject to appropriation, not to exceed $250,000 or 50% of the cost, whichever is less, to hospitals seeking designation as a Primary Stroke Center.

· IDPH shall prepare a report to the Governor and General Assembly a listing the Primary Stroke Centers and those applying for grants.

We are still working with a number of groups to address their suggested changes to legislation, including EMS officials, the Illinois Hospital Association, the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, the City of Chicago and others. However, we are optimistic that we can resolve these issues becuase Rep. Biggin's bill (HB 4699) already provides for a great deal of flexibility.

Please look for our alert and take action through your You're The Cure! Network (sign up for the network at http://www.capitolconnect.com/yourethecure/index.aspx ) to urge your legislators to support House Bill 4699!