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Acute audits

The Acute Audit measures Australia’s stroke care against evidence-based clinical guidelines - helping clinicians, healthcare administrators, and governments to identify improvement opportunities of stroke care services throughout Australia.

Forming part of the National Stroke Audit Program, the biannual acute audit tracks the effectiveness of acute stroke care - from the availability of stroke units, to timely assessments and interventions, to discharge planning and outcomes.

2023 Acute audit

The last Acute Services Audit was held in 2023.

Past reports



Where the data comes from

Acute audits are part of the National Stroke Audit and comprises:

An Organisational Survey

An Organisational Survey of acute hospitals across Australia provides information about the resources available to deliver acute stroke care, such as the availability of stroke units, imaging services and interdisciplinary staff.

The Organisational Survey questions assess adherence to the National Acute Stroke Services Framework 2019, which provides national recommendations related to acute stroke elements of care, including what defines a stroke unit, comprehensive stroke services, primary stroke services and general hospital services.

A Clinical Audit

The Clinical Audit involving the retrospective review of up to 40 consecutive patients measures adherence to evidence-based process of care outlined in the Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management 2017 and the Australian Commission of Safety and Quality in Health Care’s (ACSQHC) Acute Stroke Clinical Care Standard.

These processes of care include timely assessments by clinicians, diagnostic procedures, early interventions, interdisciplinary care and discharge planning. Timing of the delivery of various aspects of care and discharge outcomes are also measured.

The Australian Stroke Data Tool (AuSDaT) provides hospital clinicians in acute and rehab settings to collect clinical monitoring in stroke care. Visit the Australian Stroke Coalition website for more information on AuSDaT. The AuSDaT can be directly accessed at tool.ausdat.org.au