Abstract 5: Differences in Stroke Care Among Patients in the REGARDS Study by Admission to a Hospital Participating versus Not Participating in GWTG-Stroke

Introduction: Get With The Guidelines (GWTG)-Stroke is a stroke-care quality-improvement program implemented in 1,656 of 5,564 (30%) US hospitals; however, the assessment of the effectiveness of GWTG is limited by the lack of data from hospitals not participating in the program. Methods: The REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) is a national population-based longitudinal cohort study of 30,239 black u0026 white participants aged 45+ years. Participants with an incident stroke were hospitalized in their local hospital. The proportion of patients receiving each of 10 quality-care metrics was calculated among the stroke victims admitted to hospitals with and without GWTG-Stroke. Logistic regression was used to adjust for participant and hospital differences of those seen in GWTG/non-GWTG hospitals. Results: Between 2003 and 2015, 207 of the 546 (38%) REGARDS participants suffering an ischemic stroke were treated in a hospital currently participating in the GWTG-Stroke program (the re...