Standardized Heart Attack Protocol Shows Great Benefits

CLEVELAND – A recent study shows how a Cleveland Clinic-developed protocol has been able to significantly improve survival rates among patients who have suffered the most severe kind of heart attack, no matter their socioeconomic background.

“We have worked since 2014 to make sure that patients with a certain type of heart attack, called ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), a very serious type of heart attack, have a standardized care protocol,” said Umesh Khot, MD, cardiologist for Cleveland Clinic. “And, what we did is we looked at that protocol across different socioeconomic demographics.”

Dr. Khot said the protocol was designed to reduce healthcare disparities during life-threating and time-sensitive conditions.

Research has previously shown disparities in care can lead to increased rates or re-hospitalization, diminished quality of life and higher rates of death for heart attack patients who live in low socioeconomic neighborhoods.

Dr. Khot said based on their study, which looked at roughly 1,700 patients, they saw major improvements after the protocol was implemented.

“What we found was we were able to improve care in patients from lower socioeconomic demographics, which ultimately led to an almost 60% reduction in their chances of dying from this kind of heart attack,” he said.

Dr. Khot said they ultimately hope other healthcare systems will adopt similar protocol to help reduce disparities in care.