Standard therapies for such ailments as pneumonia, heart attacks often ignored.
By Elizabeth Weise / USA TODAY
Health update
Chemical levels dropping
Americans have lower levels of lead, secondhand-smoke byproducts and other potentially dangerous substances in their bodies than a decade ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. It tested for 148 environmental chemicals, including pesticides and disinfectants.
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Years and even decades after doctors agreed on life-saving standard therapies for heart attacks, pneumonia and congestive heart failure, disturbingly large numbers of patients aren't receiving them, according to two papers in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Reviewing data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on 10 indicators for quality of care at 3,558 hospitals in the first half of 2004, researchers at Harvard School of Public Health found that simple, universally accepted treatments were not provided for:
• 11 percent of heart attack patients.
• 19 percent of those with congestive heart failure.
• 29 percent of pneumonia sufferers.
Read more...The Detroit News: Healthcare
Posted by gruwell at July 25, 2005 8:21 AM | TrackBack