Analysing current trends in care of acute myocardial infarction using PERFECT data.

Introduction: This article in the supplement issue on the Performance, Effectiveness, and Costs of Treatment episodes (PERFECT)-project describes the PERFECT AMI (acute myocardial infarction) Database, which is developed to measure the performance of hospitals and hospital districts in Finland. We analyse annual trends and regional differences in performance indicators and whether the utilisation of services and costs of hospital care are related to improvement in survival of AMI patients.
Material and Methods: The study population consists of ten annual cohorts (1998-2007) of patients hospitalised for AMI.
Results: Since 1998 the treatment pattern has changed rather radically, the utilisation rate of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has increased and coronary procedures have been performed earlier after myocardial infarction. Outcome measured by various measures of mortality has improved considerably. However, trends in the development of the use of services and outcomes are not similar between hospital districts. An increase in cost was positively and statistically significantly related to decrease in mortality, but the effect was not very strong.
Conclusion: There is potential for decreased mortality from actions that do not increase the costs and for enhancing performance in the regions and hospitals with poor performance.