A Collaborative Project in Connecticut to Improve the Care of Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

Triage of patients for a rapid (5-minute) electrocardiogram: A rule based on presenting chief complaints

“…Larger studies have found similar delays. Meehan et al 17 found that the mean delay was 70 minutes in 35 acute care hospitals in the state of Connecticut, studying 1,202 patients with acute MI. Ellerbeck et al 18 examined mean delays in administration of thrombolytic agents on 16,869 patients with acute MI in 4 states and found a 1.2-hour mean delay.…”

Assessing the Impact of Continuous Quality Improvement on Clinical Practice: What It Will Take to Accelerate Progress

“…Thirteen multisite studies reporting results were identified; of these, three studies are currently in progress. Six studies focused on heart disease (O'Connor et al 1996a;Krall, Reese, and Donahue 1995;Philbin et al 1996;Meehan et al 1996;Mitchell et al 1996;Gordian and Ballard 1997). Other categories were examined as well: one looked into both hypertension and depression (Horowitz et al 1996;Goldberg et al 1998); one, adverse drug events (Leape et al 1995); one, cystitis (O'Connor et al 1996b); one, pediatric immunization rates (Carlin, Carlson, and Nordin 1996); and, finally, one took on six conditions: acute myocardial infarction, COPD, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, stroke, and total hip replacement (Shortell et al 1995b).…”

Sex Differences in Mortality After Myocardial Infarction

“…The details of this project have been published earlier. 26 Participating hospitals ranged from 92 to 875 beds and included both teaching and nonteaching institutions. All had intensive care units.…”

“…However, even though process of care (exemplified by use of thrombolytic therapy among eligible patients) varied among these hospitals, 26 it was not related to hospital size or presence of invasive cardiovascular services (unpublished data available from us). In addition, our study showed that the sex distribution in each age group did not vary by hospital size and cardiovascular services offered.…”