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About this Measure
This national measure looks at the percentage of patients who die within 30 days of being in a hospital to be treated for a heart attack. The measure includes deaths whether or not the death was due to a heart attack.
A lower number is better for this measure.
What is a Benchmark?
Southcoast compares all of its internal quality measures against benchmarks to help gauge our performance. Benchmarks are usually an external suitable comparison group, such as a national average, or an expected target set by an external agency. When none are available, Southcoast sets its own internal performance goals.
This benchmark: This measure is calculated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services using data that is collected from all hospitals in the United States. The benchmark only includes patients who have Medicare for their health insurance program. The benchmark is risk-adjusted for the kinds of patients who go to the hospital so that hospitals that take care of sicker patients won't have worse rate just because their patients were sicker.
What Does This Mean?
The national 30-day death rate from heart attack is 16.1 percent. This rate will never be zero since the measure includes patients who died for reasons that may have had nothing to do with a heart attack, such as an auto accident or other medical condition.
Southcoast's heart attack death rate is no different than the U.S. national rate. In fact, 62 of 64 hospitals in Massachusetts are also no different than the national rate.
What Southcoast is Doing to Improve this Measure
Southcoast cares for patients with heart attacks by following national recommendations for heart attack care that include:
- Giving specific medications upon arrival to the hospital and at the time of discharge from the hospital. These medications are tailored to each patient's specific needs and may include aspirin to reduce the risk of a blood clot, and heart medications known as beta blockers and ACE or ARB inhibitors. These medications help to control blood pressure and help the heart pump blood as effectively as possible.
- For some types of heart attacks, it may be necessary to give a blood clot-buster drug very quickly upon arriving at the hospital. Other patients may need to have a blocked artery opened with a heart catheterization procedure or even open heart surgery at our Charlton Memorial Hospital site in Fall River. No matter which Southcoast hospital you may be taken to, we make all of the arrangements to quickly transfer a heart attack patient to Charlton for these specialized procedures if they are needed.
- By offering smoking cessation counseling to patients who have smoked at any time within 12 months prior to being a patient in the hospital.
A Note About Our Data
All data on this site are aggregate data for all Southcoast Hospitals sites.
Trend for this Measure
This measure was first published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services using data from 2006. A trend report will be available for this measure when additional reports are published.
Contact Us
Quality and patient safety is extremely important to Southcoast Hospitals. Let us know whether this information is helpful or how we could better serve you.
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