Although the United States lags behind comparable nations in many health measures, mortality following acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is lower in the United States than in many other developed countries, including Finland, New Zealand, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, and Germany. In fact, of every 20 patients admitted to a US hospital with AMI, 19 are still alive after 1 month, which is better than 27 of the 33 other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.1 Despite this, both mortality and angina burden for patients after AMI vary substantially among American hospitals. Furthermore, even comparable types of hospitals differ substantially in the cost of care for AMI.

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