What distinguishes top-performing hospitals in acute myocardial infarction mortality rates? A qualitative study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mortality rates for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) vary substantially across hospitals, even when adjusted for patient severity; however, little is known about hospital factors that may influence this variation.

Objective

To identify factors that may be related to better performance in AMI care, as measured by risk-standardized mortality rates.

Design

Qualitative study that used site visits and in-depth interviews.

Setting

Eleven U.S. hospitals that ranked in either the top or the bottom 5% in risk-standardized mortality rates for 2 recent years of data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2005 to 2006 and 2006 to 2007), with diversity among hospitals in key characteristics.

Participants

158 members of hospital s

SUBMITTER: Curry LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4735872 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature