Approximately 425,000 Medicare patients are hospitalized with AMI’s each year. Many do not receive important therapies that are known to be beneficial. The National Acute Myocardial Infarction Project focuses on increasing the use of appropriate care processes (interventions) to improve patient outcome. According to American Heart Association data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), treatment of AMI in U.S. hospitals cost $31.5 billion in 2003.
Due to the urgent nature of a suspected AMI, the majority of the processes in which quality of care issues can be addressed occurs during a fairly short time period. Appropriate patient management during all of these time periods is crucial in order to improve the outcomes for this high-risk group. The AMI project focuses on the use of the following care recommendations for patients hospitalized with AMI:
- Hospital Quality Indicators-AMI
- Administration of aspirin within 24 hours before or after hospital arrival
- Aspirin prescribed at discharge
- Smoking cessation counseling during hospitalization
- Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or Angiotensin Receptor Blocker (ARB) prescribed at discharge if left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is impaired
- Beta blocker prescribed at discharge
- Administration of beta blocker within 24 hours of hospital arrival
- Timely initiation of reperfusion therapy (either thrombolytic agent or percutaneous coronary intervention)
- Project Resources
