AHRQ Study Finds Decline in Adverse Events for Heart Attack, Heart Failure Patients

Adverse events for patients being treated for heart attack and heart failure have declined, according to a new study published in the January 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). However, theAHRQ-funded analysis used to develop the NEJM study found no significant decrease in adverse events for patients being treated for pneumonia and those who received surgery. The study, “National Trends in Patient Safety for Four Common Conditions, 2005 to 2011,” compared the rate of 21 adverse events that occurred among hospital patients in 2005-2006 with those that happened in 2010-2011. Researchers from AHRQ and the Harvard School of Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics found that from 2005 to 2011, the rate of heart attack patients experiencing one or more adverse events fell from 26.0 percent to 19.4 percent and the rate for heart failure patients experiencing adverse events fell from 17.5 percent to 14.2 percent. A preview of the study is available on the NEJM Web site.