A percutaneous coronary intervention lab in every hospital?

BACKGROUND In 2001, 1176 US hospitals were capable of performing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and 79% of the population lived within 60-minute ground transport of these hospitals. We compared these estimates with data from 2006 to explore how hospital PCI capability and population access have changed over time. METHODS AND RESULTS We estimated the proportion of the population 18 years of age or older, living in 2006 within a 60-minute drive of a PCI-capable hospital, and we compared our estimate with a previously published report on 2001 data. Over the 5-year period, the number of PCI-capable hospitals grew from 1176 to 1695 hospitals, a relative increase of 44%; access to the procedure grew from 79.0% to 79.9% of the population, a relative increase of 1%. CONCLUSIONS Our data indicate a large increase in the number of hospitals capable of performing PCI from 2001 to 2006, but this increase was not associated with an appreciable change in the proportion of the population with access to the procedure. In the future, more attention is needed on changes in PCI capacity over time and on the effects of these changes on outcomes of interest such as service utilization, expenditures, patient outcomes, and population health.