heart attacks

A new analysis by The Joint Commission has concluded that hospitals have significantly improved the care they deliver for heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia over the past few years. The report, which looked at how hospitals cared for these conditions between 2002 and 2005, found that hospitals steadily improved their performance in following guidelines for these conditions during this period. For example, it found that in 2005, ninety-six percent of heart attack patients got …

Even if they're insured, many heart patients don't get adequate follow-up care, according to research published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The research, which followed 2,498 patients recovering from heart attacks, found that one in five patients felt they couldn't afford follow-up care, and one in eight didn't buy medicine due to the cost. The kicker: more than two-thirds of the patients who reported being worried about expenses actually had …

Kaiser Permanente announced yesterday that it was awarding $7 million to a group of California's public hospitals and clinic, with funding aimed at helping these "safety net" providers offer better preventive care. The $7 million was broken down into a total of 57 smaller grants, awarded through Kaiser's Health Information Technology Initiative. About $5 million of the funds will help the hospitals and clinics stay up to date with preventive technology such as automation for mammogram …

In two separate studies this week, evidence has accumulated suggesting that MRI tests have some real advantages in treating cardiovascular incidents. In one study, conducted by researchers at the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, researchers concluded that MRIs are more sensitive that CT scans when it comes to emergency diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke. In a separate piece of research, meanwhile, doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center said they'd found MRI …

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A New York Times article observes that while healthcare costs have grown exponentially over the last 50 years, life expectancy has also increased dramatically. In the good old days, a typical American could expect to spend about $500 a year (adjusted for inflation) on healthcare; that figure has ballooned to $6,000 today. But look at the medical advances we've enjoyed: Physicians have discovered how to prevent heart attacks, oncologists have more success curing cancer, and more …

At the Duke Clinical Research Institute of Duke Medical Center in North Carolina, a two-year program aims to coordinate emergency care from emergency medical workers, hospitals and doctors activities to better manage heart attacks patients. The RACE Initiative (Reperfusion of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Carolina Emergency Departments), funded by a $1 million grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina, provides ambulances with EKG machines so workers can collect vital data about a …

There's some encouraging news from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, where Don Berwick's campaign to save 100,000 lives appears to be a success. Berwick, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, launched the campaign in December of 2004, pledging to reduce the number of avoidable deaths at hospitals by pushing specific quality improvements. Since then more than 3,000 hospitals--representing 75 percent of U.S. hospital beds--have agreed to participate. There were a …

San Diego is considering a new system that would require ambulances to take patients experiencing serious heart attacks only to hospitals that have catheterization labs on site to insure that potentially-life saving treatment is given quickly. Currently, all but two of San Diego County's hospitals are failing to get patients into the cath lab within 90 minutes, which considered the standard by most experts.

"The way it is now, it's a free-for-all. Anybody goes anywhere, and …

A new study by cardiologists at Duke has found evidence that appears to back the effectiveness of wireless systems that transmit electrocardiogram data from ambulances on their way to hospitals. Doctors were able to access data on heart attacks on their PDAs, giving them more time to evaluate cases before they arrived in the emergency department. That difference, the researchers argue, is critical.

Lead researcher George Adams comments, "When the cardiologist can directly see an …