IN January 2024, the stroke quality improvement registry RES-Q had a story to tell. The registry was about to launch their brand-new, future-ready platform at a new website address. The new platform had several attractive new features for which the previous one had lacked the capacity. These included a single sign-on function to access multiple accounts, more intuitive data collection available in 15 languages, user-friendly dashboards and the ability to generate reports on demand.
A campaign was launched to make the global stroke community aware of the new URL and reassure them that migration of their old data would commence as soon as they’d reregistered on the new site.
While Angels consultants worldwide stepped up to help hospitals in their countries navigate the change, the team in the Philippines spotted an opportunity. About eight months had passed since a milestone meeting in Manilla during which stroke-ready hospitals received hands-on training in how – and why – to use RES-Q.
Quality monitoring is a requirement for the Acute Stroke Ready Hospital (ASRH) Certification Programme that the Stroke Society of the Philippines (SSP) rolled out early in 2023. The goal of the Manilla meeting had been to change perceptions about data collection processes and by bringing together stroke care professionals from 47 ASRH certified hospitals at a single event, they’d succeeded in lighting many candles with one flame.
Now the launch of the “new” RES-Q presented another opportunity for a quality monitoring-focused gathering – this time held online in order to reach even more hospitals.
The webinar that took place on the evening of 14 March drew the attendance of 300+ participants representing 75 hospitals and once again demonstrated the synergy between Angels and the SSP. The meeting was addressed by two past SSP presidents who now share the role of national coordinator for RES-Q, Drs Maria Epifania Collantes and Maria Cristina San Jose, with a closing statement by current SSP president Dr Maria Socorro Sarfati. The main event was a virtual walkthrough of the new RES-Q platform conducted by RES-Q global manager Rupal Sedani connecting from the Czech Republic.
Why do quality monitoring
Adopting RES-Q as the national registry was an opportunity to improve stroke care from the ground up, Dr Collantes said. Data collection and analysis produced benefits both at the point of patient care and in respect of policy change. As well as identifying gaps and challenges at hospital level, quality monitoring could impact policy by providing data on risk factors and putting the spolight on issues such as gender disparity and socio-economic and regional differences. It could help reveal the causes of treatment delays, improve stroke timelines and outcomes, plot trends and ultimately lead to decreased mortality.
It was however necessary for data to be complete and accurate in order to obtain a clear picture of stroke care in the entire country.
Using RES-Q was a key facilitator of evidence-based healthcare and quality improvement in the Philippines, Dr San Jose said. Quality monitoring was among the chief strategies for promoting and embedding evidence-based healthcare, which meant ensuring that the entire healthcare delivery system was grounded in evidence-based principles.
Quality monitoring enabled a systemised review of care against explicit criteria, Dr San Jose said. Data both pushed and pulled quality improvement by helping to identify and analyse problems. The information obtained was the basis for decision-making and decision lead to action.
Data collection also permitted benchmarking, and comparison of outcomes and processes against those of competitors and industry leaders fueled the drive to do better.
Make it a habit
Question time followed the virtual tour of the enhanced and user-friendly RES-Q platform brought and brought additional insights:
Q: How should one go about convincing hospital administrators to adopt RES-Q?
Dr Collantes: Tell them about the benefits and show them how data can be used to improve stroke care.
Q: Will the Philippines have its own registry?
Dr Collantes: RES-Q is our national stroke registry. It is internationally recognised and provides realtime feedback that enables improvement.
Q: Who should take charge of RES-Q at our hospital?
Dr San Jose: Identify your change champion – someone who is committed to using data for quality improvement.
Q: What is best practice for reporting and communicating quality monitoring results in your department or hospital?
The answer to this question went to the heart of what it means to commit to continuous quality improvement and better outcomes for patients. Just four words long, it contained a piece of advice that, if taken on board by hospitals, would accomplish everything any quality monitoring activation, including this webinar, was intended to achieve.
Dr San Jose didn’t hesitate for a second: “Make it a habit,” she said.
