Minnesota Acute Stroke System

To improve outcomes for thousands of people, we're changing the way emergency medical services triage and treat stroke patients. With emergency medical services and hospitals working together, we can make a real difference in people's lives.

With stroke, time lost is brain lost. More than one-third of Minnesotans live over 60 minutes away from a primary stroke center. Nearly 1 in 3 stroke victims arrive first at a small, rural hospital, which highlights the need to make sure that every community hospital is equipped to treat acute stroke patients.

Planning (Updated 5/7/2013)

We partnered with the American Heart Association to convene the Minnesota Acute Stroke System Council to develop an acute stroke system for Minnesota. The charge for this group was to:
  • Adopt standard protocols for emergency medical services to assess and triage stroke patients.
  • Identify hospitals that can treat stroke patients and meet criteria to participate in the system.
  • Create the parameters for data collection, performance improvement, and system coordination and monitoring.

Phase 1 planning concluded in December 2012. Legislation was introduced in the 2013 Minnesota Legislature to authorize the Minnesota Department of Health to designated hospitals. This legislation is found in the health and human services omnibus bill (click here to view the bill).

The next phase for the system will be to prepare for hospital designations. We anticipate the designation process to begin in January 2014.

For more information, please contact Albert Tsai at albert.tsai@state.mn.us.

Timeline

Resources and Products

Stroke Data

Other state stroke system model information

Literature

Updated Tuesday, 07-May-2013 09:54:40 CDT