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Condition: Heart Attack PDF Print E-mail

What is important in the care of a patient having a heart attack?

The graph below demonstrates Anderson Hospital’s performance for each one of the treatment recommendations for heart attack compared to the performance of other hospitals nationwide.

  1. Aspirin Given Within 24 Hours of Arrival
  2. Fibrinolytic Therapy with 30 Minutes of Arrival
  3. Primary PCI Within 90 Minutes of Arrival
  4. Smoking Cessation Counseling
  5. Ace-Inhibitor Prescribed for Left Ventricular Dysfunction (LVSD)
  6. Beta blocker prescribed at discharge
  7. Aspirin Prescribed at discharge
  8. Inpatient Mortality

AMI

  1. Aspirin at arrival. Aspirin helps reduce the bloods tendency to clot in blood vessels in the heart. Giving aspirin within 24 hrs of arriving at the hospital with a heart attack improves survival rates. This measure reports the percentage of patients who received aspirin within 24 hrs (before or after) arrival at the hospital. Back to top of page.
  2. Median time to fibrinolysis. (Fibrinolytic Therapy with 30 Minutes of Arrival) National guidelines recommend that a fibrinolytic or “clot busting” drug be given within 30 min of hospital arrival for patients who are having a certain type of heart attack (ST elevation or left bundle branch by EKG).  This measure reports the percentage of patients that were having that certain type of heart attack who received the clot busting drug within 30 min of arrival at the hospital. Back to top of page.
  3. Median time to PCI. (Primary PCI Within 90 Minutes of Arrival) National guidelines recommend prompt coronary intervention (cardiac cath with angioplasty) within a timely manner for patients having a certain type of heart attack (ST elevation or left bundle branch by EKG). Prompt cardiac cath with angioplasty results in a significant decrease in death and complications after having a heart attack. This measure reports the median time (midpoint of the range of times) from patient arrival at the hospital to coronary intervention. Back to top of page.
  4. Smoking cessation advice or counseling.  Quitting smoking reduces the risk of complications and death. National guidelines strongly recommend that the patient receive advice or counseling to quit smoking while in the hospital with a heart attack. This measure reports the percentage of patients that smoked anytime during the past year who received advice or counseling to quit smoking. Back to top of page.
  5. ACE I or ARB prescribed at discharge for LVSD. (Ace-Inhibitor Prescribed for Left Ventricular Dysfunction (LVSD)) Certain types of medicines such as ACE I – angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors or ARB- angiotensin receptor blockers are helpful for patients when the bottom part of their heart is not pumping as forcefully as normal. This measure reports the percentage of patients who were prescribed either an ACE I or and ARB at discharge if the bottom part of their heart was documented as being weak. Back to top of page.
  6. Beta blocker prescribed at discharge. Beta blockers are a kind of medicine that have been shown to reduce further heart damage after a heart attack. This measure reports the percentage of patients that were prescribed beta blockers when discharged from the hospital. Back to top of page.
  7. Aspirin at discharge. Aspirin helps reduce the bloods tendency to clot in blood vessels in the heart. Aspirin can improve survival after a heart attack. This measure reports how often aspirin was prescribed to heart attack patients when they were discharged from the hospital. Back to top of page.
  8. Inpatient mortality. This measure reports the number of patients having  a heart attack who expired during the hospital stay. Back to top of page.

For more information on these quality measures, please check Hospital Compare.
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