Worst / Best Attacks

What we try to do here is to look at national news health stories and find how they relate to our jursidiction. Sometimes that's pretty simple and fairly easy to do and then came ABC News Men's Health Coverage. Their report based on Circulation's article appears to go beyond what's included. Now if we were physicians or more medically trained we might be better able to decipher the contents. What's missing from the story and the full text of the article are the specifics by state of the best hospitals for treatment of heart problems. Our jursidiction (DC, MD and VA) are not in the top or the bottom of the list.

The report authors place their emphasis on changing the process for treating individuals with heart problems. In an emergency situation such information is crucial. The rule of thumb is you have twenty (20) minutes to receive treatment for a heart attack if you are to survive without any permanent damage or if you are to fully recover from your "episode." Like somehow this is the next installment of "This Is Your Life - the series." This IS your life and not a reality show slated for the new fall season on ABC-TV.

The problem with the reports findings according to the authors are: "At the time of the measurement, there were no financial incentives for hospitals or the community to focus on this aspect of care. In fact, hospitals are penalized by reducing readmission rates, as this would adversely affect hospital revenues." (PDF)

Their solution: Another study on how the rates can be improved for all hospitals. Our opinion: You might not want to spend your 20 minutes trying to get to New Jersey it just might be that hospitals there just have higher revenues (read profits) and NOT better care. In any event the authors state that the differences aren't very large between the best and the worst which is a very LARGE concern to all of us.