The Best And Worst States for Heart Attack

Study Shows It Matters Where Heart Patients Receive Acute Treatment

By RADHA CHITALE
ABC News Medical Unit

In the event of a heart attack or heart failure, the best course of action is to head directly to a hospital. And if that hospital is in New Jersey, so much the better.

A new study shows that hospitals in some states regularly outperform others for treating heart attack and heart failure.

(ABC News Photo Illustration)

The Garden State was among the states with the least deaths and fewest hospital readmissions following a heart attack or heart failure, according to a new study published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

The study examined data on heart attack and heart failure patients from about 600,000 hospital admissions across the country between July 2005 and June 2008. The results showed that, while there was room for improvement in care across the board, the hospitals in some states -- like New Jersey, for example -- consistently outperformed hospitals in other states in terms of patient mortality or hospital readmission in the 30 days after they received treatment.Read more...