The New York State Coverdell Stroke Program (Coverdell)

Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program

In 2001, Congress appropriated funds to establish the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Registry (NASR), now referred to as the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program (PCNASP), named after Georgia Senator Paul Coverdell who died of a stroke while serving in Congress. The goal of the Coverdell Program is to develop high quality stroke systems of care to save lives and prevent disability and death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides support to state health departments to monitor care delivered to stroke patients and improve the quality of stroke systems of care.

New York State Coverdell Stroke Program

The Coverdell Stroke Program is a data-driven quality improvement program within the New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH) addressing stroke. The program has been awarded funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program (PCNASP) since 2012. The New York State Coverdell Program aims to support the development of comprehensive stroke systems to achieve improvements in prevention, pre-hospital/EMS, in-hospital care, post-hospital care and community education to prevent and reduce the burden of stroke. For more information on stroke burden, please see the CDC Stroke Death Rate map below.

New York State is one of 13 states funded by the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program. Other funded states include Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. : The New York Coverdell Program engages in statewide quality improvement activities that expand and strengthen the New York State Stroke Designation Program. The Coverdell Program develops and implements a focused Quality Improvement program that:

  1. Uses quality improvement strategies to identify and resolve gaps in stroke systems of care;
  2. Increases quality reporting of data on stroke care indicators from EMS, hospitals and post-acute care;
  3. Uses quality improvement to identify and implement strategies to eliminate disparities in stroke care;
  4. Develops both aggregate and hospital-specific reports on stroke outcomes; and
  5. Provides technical assistance to support data quality assurance and stroke systems of care.

Interested in learning more about the Coverdell Program?

Contact the New York State Coverdell Stroke Program at Coverdell@health.ny.gov

Visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website for more information.