THURSDAY, July 22 (HealthDay News) -- Patient-centered care (PCC) of patients hospitalized for an initial acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is associated with modestly improved survival over a one-year period, according to a study published online July 20 in Health Services Research.

Mark Meterko, Ph.D., of the VA Boston Healthcare System, and colleagues evaluated data from a national sample of 1,858 veterans hospitalized for an initial AMI during fiscal years 2003 and 2004 to assess the influence of PCC and technical care quality on outcomes.

The researchers found that better PCC was linked to a significantly but modestly lower hazard of death in a one-year period (hazard ratio, 0.992). They write that a one-standard deviation increase in the PCC index was associated with a one-year mortality hazard of 0.84, which is a 16 percent reduction compared with the average level of PCC.

"The finding that PCC is related to survival in a nationally representative sample of hospitalized veterans who were treated for an AMI suggests that future research should investigate the impact of patients' experiences as well as the quality of technical care on outcomes," the authors write.

Abstract
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