Health Care Quality and Cost Council

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• Angioplasty (PCI)
• 21 hospitals in Massachusetts perform a medical
  procedure called angioplasty (also called
  percutaneous cardiovascular intervention or
  PCI.) Doctors do this by inserting a small tube
  into blood vessels that go to the heart. This
  procedure helps re-open any blocked blood
  vessels. Angioplasty can help save heart muscle
  and reduce the severity of a heart attack. To
  learn more about angioplasty, go to
  http//www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/angioplasty.ht
  ml
• Angioplasty is sometimes elective. This means
  that patients and their doctors have time to
  decide which hospital to use. It helps to know
  about hospital quality and cost when you decide
  where to go for surgery. Of note, higher cost
  does not mean better quality. It is important to
  know about both no matter whether you or your
  health plan pays for your hospital care.
• If you are at risk for heart disease, you may
  want to know in advance about the quality and
  cost of care at hospitals in your area. You may
  have some choice of which hospital to go to in
  your local area, even in an emergency.
• How is quality measured?
• For angioplasty, quality is measured by mortality
  (death) rates. This looks at the number of
  patients who die after having angioplasty. A
  lower mortality rate means fewer patients died.