What Makes a Difference in Heart Attack Care?
<p>When treating heart attack patients, simply following evidence-based practices or protocols, like administering a beta blocker, may not be enough.</p>
<p>A <a href="/publications/journal-article/2011/mar/what-distinguishes-top-performing-hospitals-acute-myocardial">new</a> <em>Annals of Internal Medicine</em> study that looks at 11 hospitals in either the top or bottom 5 percent of performers on 30-day risk-standardized mortality for acute myocardial infarction found no substantial differences in the use of such protocols. The study, which was led by Leslie A. Curry, Ph.D., of the Yale School of Public Health, was supported by The Commonwealth Fund.</p>
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<a href="/publications/journal-article/2011/mar/what-distinguishes-top-performing-hospitals-acute-myocardial">Read more</a> to discover the factors that <em>did</em> make a difference in heart attack care.</p>
<p>And to learn how hospitals nationwide compare on heart attack care and many other performance measures, visit <a href="http://www.whynotthebest.org/" target="_blank">WhyNotTheBest.org</a>, The Commonwealth Fund's online resource for health care quality improvement. <br /></p>