January 24, 2006

The Sullivan Group Helps Hospitals Achieve Stroke Center Certification.

New Hope for Stroke!™ Consulting Program Dramatically Accelerates Stroke Certification Process

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. – January 24, 2006 – The Sullivan Group (TSG), a leading provider of risk management solutions for medical professionals, today announced “New HOPE for Stroke!”, a turnkey consulting program that helps healthcare organizations complete the necessary steps to becoming certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s predominant standards-setting and accrediting body in health care.

TSG’s New HOPE for Stroke! program combines process consulting, document templates, and education tools to assist hospitals in implementing an acute stroke treatment program in 90-120 days.  TSG’s team is comprised of medical and nursing specialists in both emergency medicine and neurology who have successfully implemented acute stroke care programs at their own hospitals. 

Addressing a Critical Problem
Despite the widespread availability of treatment protocols and an approved therapy for acute stroke (including the thrombolytic t-PA), only one to two percent of strokes receive thrombolytic therapy based on proven protocols.  To address this issue, the Joint Commission has begun awarding a Certificate of Distinction for Primary Stroke Centers to recognize centers that make exceptional efforts to foster better outcomes for stroke care.
However, while many hospitals have taken steps to achieving certification, few have been able to successfully complete the certification process.

“Even the most efficient hospitals can face significant challenges completing the stroke center certification process,” said Dr. Dan Sullivan, founder and CEO of The Sullivan Group.  “We see the same roadblocks coming up time and again: disconnects between hospital administrators and medical professionals; lack of agreement among various medical specialties; lack of cooperation from local EMS providers; and bottlenecks in processing patients quickly through a stroke evaluation.  Frequently, hospitals just don’t have experience designing and executing fail-safe systems of time management.  Hospitals need outside expertise in this process.”

TSG’s New Hope for Stroke! program was designed to help hospitals overcome the many challenges of the certification process, with the goal of preparing a hospital to “go live” with an acute stroke treatment program in 90–120 days.  TSG works with a hospital’s medical, nursing and ancillary services staff, as well as its EMS system, to ensure that the qualitative requirements for certification are met.  The Sullivan Group has also developed and assembled templates and documentation tools that facilitate fast, organized completion of all administrative requirements.

A typical project will include:

• a pre-engagement assessment to identify potential obstacles
• on-site education of the stroke committee, medical staff, and nursing leadership
• templates for all forms and consents
• medical/legal/nursing review of all documentation instruments
• EMS liaison support
• web-based stroke education courses
• quality indicators
• community education kit.

Team Led by Recognized Emergency Medicine Experts
TSG’s certification team is comprised of outstanding physicians and nurses who have successfully completed the certification process at their home hospitals, and is led by two nationally known experts in the treatment of stroke: Dr. Dan Sullivan and Dr. Fred Callahan

Dan Sullivan, MD, JD, FACEP
Dr. Sullivan is a board-certified emergency physician and a fellow in the American College of Emergency Medicine.  He has been practicing emergency medicine for 25 years.  Dr. Sullivan is a past president of the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians, and is an associate professor of emergency medicine in the Cook County emergency medicine program.  He is the co-editor of the ACEP risk management textbook and has authored numerous books and articles on the subject of risk management and patient safety in emergency medicine. 
 
Fred Callahan, MD
Dr. Callahan is a pioneer in the fields of stroke treatment and integrated vascular care.  Following postgraduate training in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Dr. Callahan served a residency in neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in neurology at Harvard Medical School.  He currently has a private practice in neurology in Nashville, TN and has served on the clinical faculty at Vanderbilt.  Past president of the Nashville chapter of the American Heart Association, Dr. Callahan has written many medical publications, holds three patents, and has authored The Next Medical Revolution: Angiology.
“While the Joint Commission’s Primary Stroke Center Certification provides a powerful incentive for hospitals to follow the most current stroke treatment protocols, the certification process can be tricky and time-consuming to complete,” added Dr. Sullivan. “The Sullivan Group’s expertise and packaged administrative templates allow hospitals to quickly and efficiently move through the certification process, and stay on the leading edge of medical care in their community.”

About The Sullivan Group

The Sullivan Group’s patient safety and risk management system combines web-based risk and safety education programs, intelligent medical records for physicians and nurses, and a web-based clinical audit tool to help medical professionals decrease errors and improve patient outcomes. This new paradigm in risk reduction and patient safety has helped hundreds of hospital emergency departments reduce their malpractice claims by more than 40%. The Sullivan Group serves more than 500 hospitals, healthcare organizations, and insurance companies nationwide, including HCA, Premier, and Triad hospitals, and ISMIE Mutual Insurance Company. For more information, please visit www.thesullivangroup.com, or call 1-866-Med-Risk.