Does care in a new generation coronary care unit reduce hospital mortality in cardiac patients?
A new generation coronary care unit equipped with advanced monitoring and mechanical support achieved a hospital mortality of 6-8% for all admitted patients.
A 30-bed coronary care unit with facilities for fluoroscopy, haemodynamic monitoring, mechanical heart assistance, and long-term electrocardiographic monitoring operated at a reasonable cost over five years. Much of the work was entrusted to trained nurses, and there was close consultation with cardiac surgeons over those patients who needed catheterisation or surgery. New procedures greatly reduced the numbers of early deaths from cardiac arrest and cardiac failure but had less influence on late mortality. Hospital mortality for all 3353 patients was 6-8%, and for patients under 65 with definite infarction, who were admitted direct it was 5-7%.
O'Rourke et al. (Sat,) studied this question.