A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain functions due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. This can be due to ischemia (lack of blood supply) caused by thrombosis or embolism or due to a hemorrhage. As a result, the affected area of the brain is unable to function, leading to inability to move one or more limbs on one side of the body, inability to understand or formulate speech or inability to see one side of the visual field. In the past, stroke was referred to as cerebrovascular accident or CVA, but the term "stroke" is now preferred.

Participating hospitals will reduce their baseline stroke mortality rate by a minimum of 15% in patients 18 years and older. Individual improvement goals will be determined by each facility and may vary.

Hospitals will submit data on a quarterly basis for initiatives. When possible, hospitals will provide historical data from 2008. Improvement will be determined by a trend line. The slope of the line from the baseline until the end of the data collection period will be used to determine if the improvement goal was successfully obtained.

Data will be supplied by hospital using selected ICD-9 codes obtained from the hospitals information system.

Baseline:
Rolling 12 months Q307–Q208, Mean 9%, median 8.3%, 25th percentile 6%
AHRQ Baseline for 2006 25th percentile 8.33%