Contemporary evidence: baseline data from the D2B Alliance
2008

Hospital Strategies for Reducing Door-to-Balloon Time in STEMI Patients

Sample size: 797 publication 10 minutes Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Elizabeth H. Bradley, Brahmajee K. Nallamothu, Amy F. Stern, Jason R. Byrd, Emily J. Cherlin, Yongfei Wang, Christina Yuan, Ingrid Nembhard, John E. Brush Jr., Harlan M. Krumholz

Primary Institution: Yale University School of Medicine

Hypothesis

What are the key hospital characteristics associated with the use of evidence-based strategies to reduce door-to-balloon time in STEMI patients?

Conclusion

Many hospitals had implemented few of the key strategies to reduce door-to-balloon time, suggesting substantial opportunity to improve care for patients with STEMI.

Supporting Evidence

  • Only 30.4% of hospitals reported employing at least 4 of the 5 key strategies.
  • 9.3% of hospitals employed none of the strategies.
  • Emergency medicine activation of the catheterization laboratory was reported by about half of hospitals.

Takeaway

This study found that most hospitals are not using important strategies to help heart attack patients get treatment faster, which means there's a lot of room for improvement.

Methodology

A cross-sectional study using a Web-based survey of U.S. hospitals that joined the D2B Alliance.

Potential Biases

Self-reporting may bias the prevalence data upwards.

Limitations

Data were self-reported, which may overestimate the true use of strategies, and the study did not examine hospitals outside the D2B Alliance.

Participant Demographics

Hospitals varied in size, ownership type, and teaching status, with a mean of 376 staffed beds.

Statistical Information

P-Value

p<0.05

Confidence Interval

95% CI

Statistical Significance

p<0.05

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1186/1756-0500-1-23

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