Heart attack: aspirin prescribed at discharge

Taking aspirin daily is prescribed for most patients who have had a heart attack, because it has been shown to reduce the chance of having a second heart attack and of dying. It is preferred practice to prescribe aspirin to all patients who have had a heart attack. A higher percentage may indicate that a hospital provides a higher level of patient care.

About this measure

This measure tracks the percentage of patients treated at the hospital for a heart attack who were prescribed aspirin when they were discharged from the hospital after their heart attack. It excludes patients for whom taking aspirin is unsafe.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital wants to provide the most up to date data. For this measure, our data is from a more recent time period than the benchmark time period.

Note: In this case, a higher number is better.