This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (1)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related letter  • Related article  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Revascularization  • Cardiovascular System  • Quality of Care  • Quality of Care, Other  • Surgery  • Surgical Interventions  • Cardiovascular/ Cardiothoracic Surgery  • Cardiovascular Disease/ Myocardial Infarction  • Cardiovascular Intervention  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Time for Balance

Frederick A. Masoudi, MD, MSPH

JAMA. 2007;298(23):2790-2791.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Reperfusion therapy with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has understandably received considerable attention in quality measurement and improvement initiatives. STEMI is a common condition with high mortality. The benefits of reperfusion therapy can be substantial but are time sensitive.¹ However, important gaps exist between the patterns of treatment in the community and the ideal benchmarks established in evidence-based practice guidelines.² The timeliness of primary PCI, or "door-to-balloon" time, has emerged as one of a handful of quality measures reported to the public for the care of patients with acute myocardial infarction³ and serves as the focus of both regional^4-5 and national initiatives^6-7 to improve care quality.

Although understanding and improving the time to primary PCI in patients with STEMI has been widely accepted as important, this single measure overlooks other critical aspects of the performance of complex systems providing this . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliations: Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Denver Health Medical Center, Denver, Colorado; and Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Aurora.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati     What's this?

RELATED LETTER

Misinterpretation of Electrocardiograms and Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Activations
Andrew T. Yan, Raymond T. Yan, and Shaun G. Goodman
JAMA. 2008;299(16):1897.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

RELATED ARTICLE

"False-Positive" Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Activation Among Patients With Suspected ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction
David M. Larson, Katie M. Menssen, Scott W. Sharkey, Sue Duval, Robert S. Schwartz, James Harris, Jeffrey T. Meland, Barbara T. Unger, and Timothy D. Henry
JAMA. 2007;298(23):2754-2760.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Misinterpretation of Electrocardiograms and Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Activations
Yan et al.
JAMA 2008;299:1897-1897.
FULL TEXT  

Unnecessary Catheterization Laboratory Activation: The Cost of Doing Business?
Journal Watch Cardiology 2007;2007:1-1.
FULL TEXT