A heart attack (also called an acute myocardial infarction) happens when the
arteries leading to the heart become blocked and the blood supply is slowed or
stopped. When the heart muscle can’t get the oxygen and nutrients it needs, the
part of the heart tissue that is affected may die.
The symptoms of a heart attack can include:
- chest pain (often described as a crushing, squeezing or burning pain in the center of the chest and may radiate to your arm or jaw)
- shortness of breath
- dizziness or faintness
- sweating
- nausea
- cold or clammy skin
- a gray or very ill appearance.
Sometimes there may be no symptoms, especially if you have diabetes. Women
sometimes have different symptoms, such as a different kind of chest pain and/or
abdominal pain.
Most patients who go to the hospital with heart attack or chest pain are treated first in the hospital's Emergency Department (often called the ER) as outpatients. If a hospital doesn't have the facilities to provide specialized heart attack care, it transfers these patients to another hospital for inpatient care. Therefore, hospitals that generally transfer heart attack patients will have fewer patients for inpatient heart attack measures and more patients for the outpatient heart attack measures.
Hospitals that provide specialized heart attack care usually admit heart attack patients as inpatients. Therefore, this type of hospital may have fewer patients for the outpatient heart attack measures.
Why is this important? When looking at a hospital's numbers, look at the how well hospitals care for the patients they do have. A low number of patients doesn't mean that the hospital has little experience with heart attack care.
To see how well a hospital is doing with chest pain and heart attack patients, look at both the inpatient and outpatient heart attack measures.
More information about heart health is on the