The first meeting of the Orange County Stroke Support Groups took place on Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 7:30 pm at the American Heart Association offices at 4600 Campus Drive, Irvine, CA 92617. Below are the meeting minutes. For future meeting information, please contact us.

 

Meeting minutes:

• Intro and overview (see agenda). Participants introduced themselves and indicated their affiliations and interests/roles. (Members included MDs, researchers, PTs/PT students, OTs/OTAs, SLPs, RNs, Support Group leaders, Stroke Coordinators, educators, rehab directors, SNF owner.)

• Discussion of aims of organization:
  • Sharing information with one another re: available programs, resources, services, practices, outcomes, research, etc.;
  • Creating a centralized information center/clearinghouse for available resources, services-e.g., website;
  • Creating a mechanism for communicating with one another-e.g., listserve
  • Delineating markers for progression in stroke recovery-where should patients be in terms of function (and rehab placement) at various stages of recovery?
  • Improving upon the continuum of care-better coordination/standardization among facilities, helping providers optimize outcomes and make the best use of available resources;
  • Facilitating patient, family, caregiver education about stroke and stroke management;
  • Addressing problem of limited outpatient services due to third party payer constraints;
  • Inviting an expert on medical benefits/best way to negotiate the system;
  • Coordinating/gathering regional data on outcomes/delivery of care models and compare across centers/facilities; possibly try to standardize (“best practice” ) care;
  • Providing continuing education units-need to explore mechanism;
  • Inviting other speakers-need to identify, schedule (assuming funding available);
  • Fostering interdisciplinary interactions and involvement
  • Taking an advocacy/political action role?

• Meeting Frequency: probably quarterly

• Next meeting/event: May picnic/day for Stroke Awareness-bring together the Network, patient/survivor groups, caregiver groups.