Aspirin and Acute Myocardial Infarction

Eighty-six percent of AMI patients judged to be appropriate recipients of aspirin therapy (n=90,000) were prescribed the drug during hospitalization, while 78% of those considered to be ideal recipients after hospital discharge (n=60,000) received prescriptions for aspirin, conclude Gerald O'Connor, PhD, Dartmouth Medical School, et. al., in a study on AMI quality of care published in the Feb. 17 Journal of the American Medical Association. The report comes from the Cooperative Cardiovascular Project, conducted as part of the Health Care Financing Administration's Health Care Quality Improvement Initiative. The researchers considered 186,800 patients participating in the Medicare fee-for-service program. Researchers also reviewed rates of appropriate treatment with Rx drug therapies, as well as advice to patients to quit smoking. O'Connor, et al, conclude "there is currently unrealized potential for more effective care of patients with AMI" and "some AMI patients experience unnecessary morbidity or mortality because they receive substandard medical care"