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Heart Patients Benefit From Big Hospitals

Posted on: Friday, 3 August 2007, 15:17 CDT

Doctors say an initiative that sends heart attack patients from 31 community hospitals to a major Minneapolis hospital is saving lives.

Abbott Northwestern Hospital has treated more than 1,200 patients from as far a 210 miles away since 2003, The Wall Street Journal said Friday.

We think people in out-state communities are entitled to the same level of care available to people who live near a major medical center, Barbara Unger, head of cardiac emergency services at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, told The Journal.

Research shows angioplasty yields better results than clot-busting drugs but only 25 percent of U.S. hospitals are equipped with cardiac-catheterization laboratories where angioplasty procedures are performed.

Studies also suggest patients do better in high-volume centers where heart-attack experts are on duty around the clock.

The study, published online by the American Heart Association journal Circulation, said patients averaged three days in the hospital, below the national average of five. About 5 percent of patients died within 30 days of their heart attacks. The average death rate in all Minnesota community hospitals without catheterization labs was 14 percent in 2002, the newspaper said.

Source: United Press International

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