Hospitals Improving Speed, Quality of Heart-Attack Care in U.S.
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Hospitals in the U.S. are delivering faster emergency care to heart-attack patients, increasing their survival, an analysis found.
In 2009, 88 percent of patients with the most urgent kind of heart attacks received artery-clearing procedures within the recommended 90 minutes of arriving at the hospital, compared with 64.5 percent in 2007, the study found. The hospitals performed angioplasty and inserted stents for the emergency patients, and for others prescribed recommended drugs to reduce deaths and complications, according to the research published in tomorrow’s Journal of the American College of Cardiology.