Heart attack death rates are decreasing in U.S. hospitals
Heart attack death rates are on the decline at hospitals nationwide, according to a new report card released earlier in July by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), reports USA Today. At those hospitals that treat patients suffering heart attacks, death rates dropped from 16.6% to 16.2%. This is due to an increased effort to ensure all heart attack patients receive a certain set of treatments upon arrival to the hospital.
Additionally, there is a question as to whether the improvement is related to the fact that measures have been publicly reported for three years. That may be the case, but there’s too little data to draw any conclusions yet. Although death rates in heart attack patients have dropped, readmission rates within a month of discharge for these patients has not improved, saying at around one in five patients.
USA Today, click here. Has your hospital made any great strides in reducing mortality rates in heart attack patients? Do you have any creative campaigns related to heart attack?
About the Author: Heather Comak is a Managing Editor at HCPro, Inc., where she is the editor of the monthly publication Briefings on Patient Safety, as well as patient safety-related books, webcasts, and audio conferences. She is also is the Assistant Director of the Association for Healthcare Accreditation Professionals (www.accreditationprofessional.com) and manages Patient Safety Monitor (www.patientsafetymonitor.com), of which this blog is a part.
Contact Heather by e-mailing hcomak@hcpro.com
