Improvement Is Possible in Health Care Quality
Data reported in the National Healthcare Quality Report's chapter on heart
disease show how the Nation fares in prescribing beta-blockers for heart attack
patients when they leave the hospital. Chosen as a national priority for improvement
by the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) program, the national
rate rose to 79 percent. Moreover, this performance is up from 21 percent of
eligible patients in the early 1990s. It has been achieved by almost every State
in the Union. Fully 47 States are at or above the national average rate.
Figure 1. Percent of AMI patients prescribed a beta-blocker at discharge by State
![Map of the United States color-coded to show which states are significantly below, no different than, or significantly above the national average in prescribing beta-blockers for heart attack patients when they leave the hospital. Go to Text Description [D] for details.](sumfig1.gif)
[D] Select for Text Description.
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