Don't agree. A couple of years ago, I suffered a heart attack (although it did not seem as bad as it sounds) and spent about a week in the Cardiac Care Ward of The John Radcliffe Hospital (Oxford - an NHS (not private) hospital) and the care I received was exemplary. The ward was a secure one (the door was locked to unauthorised visitors) and we even had a scheduled afternoon nap when the lights were dimmed and visitors were asked to leave. Apart from being in hospital, I did not want to be anywhere else.
I agree that cardiac care has become much better in most hospitals over the past 15 years. Almost every hospital (at least in MN) has a cardiac cath lab staffed or on call 24-hrs a day. The reason for this is that there is a
well-defined standard of care. Also, there has been a lot of research and money thrown into understanding user requirements for a patient population that will continue to have similar problems (repeat customer).
The medical device (GE, Boston, J&J) and pharmaceutical companies involved in cardiac intervention are huge and can force this standardization on the hospitals. Funny that standardization and quality tools would increase end-user satisfaction.
