Low-income communities are up to 42% less likely to obtain stroke center certification. Hospitals in poor communities are significantly less likely to obtain certification for stroke services, which makes them unable to provide urgent, lifesaving treatment, UC San Francisco researchers are reporting in a 14-year study of the nation's hospitals. By contrast, hospitals located in economically mixed or affluent communities were more likely to become stroke certified.
Such specialized services are associated with better stroke care and patient outcomes. The findings demonstrate significant disparities across the United States in access to critical neurologic treatment, the researchers said. The study appeared July 25 in JAMA Network Open .
"Some hospitals do not have the necessary resources to treat patients experiencing certain types of strokes," said lead investigator Renee Y. Hsia, MD, a UCSF professor of emergency medicine and vice chair for Health Services Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine. Our findings can help inform the adoption of broad-based social and policy interventions at the local, state and federal levels to promote equal opportunity and access to important community resources.
" Renee Y. Hsia, Professor, Emergency Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California - San Francisco Socioeconomic disadvantage Stroke center certification, which was introduced in 2004 to improve the quality and coordination of acute stroke care, is gran.