Healthcare systems may be judged on quality of care and access to health services. Studies on the association of hospital quality of care scores and clinical outcomes have yielded mixed results. With the help of a richer and more representative database, the aim of our study was to shed light on these inconsistencies. We examined the association of 4 process of care scores (prescription of aspirin, β blocker, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker used for left ventricular systolic dysfunction, and an overall composite score) for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), reported in the Hospital Performance Reports, with 30-day and 1-year rates of readmission for AMI and cardiovascular (CV) death. Clinical outcomes were from the Myocardial Infarction Data Acquisition System, an administrative database that comprises all patient CV disease admissions to acute care hospitals in New Jersey. CV death was related with overall score (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0.821, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.726 to 0.930, p = 0.002) at 30 days and with all 4 scores at 1 year (OR ranging from 0.829 to 0.997, p <0.01). Readmission due to AMI was associated with the overall score (OR 0.789, 95% CI 0.691 to 0.902, p <0.0001) and the aspirin score (OR 0.995, 95% CI 0.990 to 1, p = 0.046) at 30 days. Low hospital performance scores for AMI were associated with increased CV death and readmission for AMI. In conclusion, healthcare providers should allocate their resources to improving hospital performance to decrease AMI case fatality, AMI readmissions, and CV-related healthcare spending.
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