
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Heart attack patients were less likely to receive percutaneous coronary interventions when they were treated in states that publicly report PCI outcomes, but overall heart attack survival rates were the same across the board, according to a new study.
The findings suggest that public reporting systems may help drive cost-saving progress in healthcare delivery, especially for high-risk patients who represented the largest different in PCI treatment between reporting and non-reporting states.
"Public reporting of patient outcomes is a key tool to drive improvements in health care delivery," researchers wrote. "The idea behind public reporting is simple: collecting and publicly reporting performance will enable patients to choose high-quality hospitals and motivate clinicians to improve performance."
New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts all have mandatory public reporting systems for PCI outcomes, the researchers noted.
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