Researchers analyzed data from the Cooperative Cardiovascular Project, a study of Medicare beneficiaries who were hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction between 1994 and 1996, and their 17-year follow-up results. The study included 119,735 patients who were admitted to 1,824 hospitals.
Researchers found that patients admitted to high-performing hospitals after a heart attack had longer life expectancies than patients treated in low-performing hospitals. On average, patients treated at high-performing hospitals lived between 0.74 years and 1.14 years longer, depending on hospital case mix, than patients treated at low-performing hospitals. The survival benefit occurred in the first 30 days and continued over the long term.
“Our findings suggest that investing in initiatives to improve short-term hospital performance might also improve long-term patient life expectancy,” said Emily M. Bucholz, MD, a resident at Boston Children’s Hospital and first author of the study, according to a Medical Xpress report.
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