http://www.dukehealth.org/health library/news/most-heart-attack-hospital- transfers-delayed-increasing-death-rates Most Heart Attack Hospital Transfers Delayed, Increasing Death Rates By Duke Medicine News and Communications Only one in 10 patients who experience a major heart attack are transferred to another hospital to get necessary treatment within the recommended 30 minutes. Failure to transfer these patients to a hospital that could clear their heart blockage in a timely fashion increased their death rate compared to patients who were moved within a half hour, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical. Association by researchers at the puke Research Institute. The study is the first to show a significantly higher mortality risk associated with the time patients spend in a hospital before they are transferred to another hospital able to perform a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to open blocked coronary arteries. PCI is the preferred treatment for many heart attack patients, yet approximately 75 percent of hospitals in the U.S. currently do not have around-the-clock PCI capability. "Door-in-door-out time is a new performance measure that assesses the timeliness of care patients receive at the first hospital and the recommended time frame is less than 30 minutes," said Tracy Y. Wang. MD, the study's lead author and assistant professor of medicine at Duke. "Until now, little had been known about this critical step in the care of these patients in need of urgent treatment. We were surprised to learn that so much valuable time is being lost." The research team analyzed a large national database of hospitals and patients known as the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) Acute Coronary Treatment and Intervention Outcomes Network Registry-Get With the Guidelines (ACTION Registry-GWTG). 1 EFTA01098654