Heart Attack Patients Given Beta Blocker at Arrival

What Does This Measure?

The percentage of eligible heart attack patients who received beta blockers within 24 hours of their arrival at the hospital.

Why Is This Important?

Beta blockers are a type of medicine that physicians prescribe to lower blood pressure, treat angina (chest pain) and heart failure, and help prevent heart attacks.

They lessen the heart’s workload by reducing the force with which the heart pumps blood. Most heart attack patients should receive a beta blocker within 24 hours of arriving at the hospital.

What Are We Doing to Improve Our Performance?

Duke has enacted several initiatives to improve our performance. These include:

• Evidence-based medicine
• Computerized physician order entry (CPOE)
• Standardized order sets
• Patient rounding
  
• Electronic medical records (EMR)
• Six Sigma and DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control process) methodologies
• Nursing and physician education
• Patient safety and clinical quality committees
• Heart attack-specific patient education and instructions
• Patient advocacy and support groups
• HealthView patient portal

More Information

• See more heart attack quality measures
• See all performance measures
• Compare Duke to other North Carolina hospitals at NC Hospital Quality Report
• Compare Duke to regional and national hospitals at Hospital Quality Alliance's Hospital Compare