2006 BISHCA COMPARISON REPORT OF 2005 DATA

HEART ATTACK CARE MEASURES

A heart attack (also called an AMI or acute myocardial infarction) happens when arteries leading to the heart become blocked and the blood supply is slowed or stopped.  The measures below show some of the recommended care given to patients, if appropriate, when admitted to a hospital for a heart attack.

INTERPRETING THE DATA:

Be careful when drawing conclusions from this information. Small numbers of patients may distort reported performance.

What does the fraction mean in all of the reports?
The denominator represents all those patients who were medically eligible to receive the particular treatment. The numerator represents all those patients who actually received the particular treatment for which they were medically qualified.
For example:

Aspirin at Arrival: 80%; 8/10
This means that 10 patients were medically eligible to receive an aspirin on arrival to the hospital and 8 patients actually received it. If a patient is allergic to aspirin, that patient would NOT be part of the denominator. “0/0” means that no patients were medically eligible to receive that particular treatment.

Would you like to see a further source of hospital performance data?  See Vermont information on the "Hospital Compare" website.
"Hospital Compare" was developed in conjunction with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA). "Hospital Compare" shows measures based on data from hospitals' patient records. The data is converted to rates that measure how well hospitals care for their patients.

The table format, measure descriptions and definition of "Achievable Benchmark" were developed by the New Hampshire-based Foundation for Healthy Communities. The Northeast Healthcare Quality Foundation provided the data analysis. The Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration expresses its gratitude to both organizations.