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Study: Death rate from heart attack higher in US territories
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Posted on Jun 30 2011
A study conducted by the Yale School of Medicine showed that a person’s chances of dying from a heart attack is higher in the U.S. territories than the U.S. mainland, mainly due to inadequate resources for health care.
The research paper stated that there is a 17 percent greater risk of dying after a heart attack if patients are treated in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands than in hospitals in the United States.
Led by Marcella Nunez-Smith, M.D., assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine, researchers used data from Medicare to study all patients suffering from a heart attack and who were admitted to 57 hospitals in the territories. These data were compared to heart attack patients admitted to 4,799 hospitals in the U.S. between July 2005 and June 2008.
The study found that the risk of death within 30 days after a heart attack was substantially higher for patients in all of the territories.
The researchers admitted being shocked by these findings. “These are serious and substantial differences and translates into increased lives lost in the U.S. territories,” said Smith.
The research findings were recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The study showed that many U.S. citizens living in the territories are at a major healthcare disadvantage.
Smith and her colleagues sought explanations for these findings by exploring whether patients overall just got sicker in the U.S. territories, but admitted that they found no answers to their questions.
Researchers indicated that there’s a need for increased resources in territories to improve the quality of patient care. Smith cited the increase in Medicare reimbursement as among the areas to be improved after finding out that hospitals in these territories have the lowest reimbursement rates.
Researchers disclosed their plan to do follow-up work with hospitals in the U.S. territories and policy makers to identify opportunities to improve health outcomes for people who live, work, and play in the territories.
Saipan Tribune tried to obtain comments from Public Health Secretary Kevin Villagomez but he did not immediately respond to email inquiries.
