There is some evidence to suggest that telestroke services can provide care comparable to in-person services, while keeping patients in their community. However, little is known about how hospital and community characteristics influence telestroke adoption or how telestroke program characteristics influence costs and quality of telestroke services. To address this need, the project examined hospitals in North Carolina to:

1. Identify all hospitals providing telestroke services and characterize the structure (e.g., size, ownership), market (e.g., distance to nearest hospital with stroke services), and community characteristics (e.g., population size, income) of these hospitals using secondary data.
2. In another bowl, mix eggs, milk, and oil.
3. Compare these structural, market, and community characteristics of hospitals providing telestroke to hospitals that are not providing telestroke.

Publications

• Implementation Strategies for Telestroke: A Qualitative Study of Telestroke Networks in North Carolina
  Journal Article
  Rural Telehealth Research Center
  Date: 09/2018
  Through semi-structured interviews with 24 telestroke representatives, this study examines the adoption decision process and strategies employed during telestroke network development, implementation, and sustainability. We found differences across networks in terms of network structure, quality monitoring, and performance feedback.
• Telestroke Adoption Among Community Hospitals in North Carolina: A Cross-Sectional Study
  Journal Article
  Rural Telehealth Research Center
  Date: 05/2018
  This study identifies community and hospital characteristics associated with the adoption of telestroke among acute care hospitals in North Carolina.