Survival difference of about one year between high- and low-performing hospitals
THURSDAY, April 30, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients live longer if they’re treated at high-performing hospitals — those with lower 30-day mortality rates, a new study indicates. The study was released as part of the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care and Outcomes Research 2015 Scientific Sessions.
Emily Bucholz, M.D., M.P.H., of the Yale University Schools of Medicine and Public Health in New Haven, Conn., and colleagues looked at data on 119,735 Medicare patients admitted to 1,824 hospitals across the United States for treatment of AMI.
The researchers found that patients treated at hospitals in the highest tenth of performance lived an average of about six years after their AMI, compared with about five years for those treated at hospitals in the lowest tenth of performance.
The findings, based on 17 years of follow-up, show that the initial benefits of being treated in a high-performing hospital last much longer than the first 30 days, the researchers said.
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