In U.S. hospitals, unnecessary coronary stents were given to patients every seven minutes between 2019 and 2021, according to a new report from the Lown Institute Hospital Index, resulting in 229,000 unnecessary coronary stents.
The procedure is often overused by hospitals, according to the report, which analyzed Medicare claims data from 1,773 hospitals in the U.S.
"Rates of overuse varied widely: at some hospitals, more than 50% of all stents met criteria for overuse, while at others, fewer than 5% were unnecessary," the report states.
Here are the hospitals the Lown Institute identified as having the highest rates of coronary stent overuse in the U.S. ranked by the percentage of procedures that met criteria for overuse:
- Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo — 52.58%
- Riverview Regional Medical Center in Gadsden, Ala. — 50%
- Kansas Medical Center in Andover, Kan. — 48.88%
- UW Medical Center Montlake in Washington — 46.18%
- Riverside Medical Center in Kankakee, Ill. — 45.79%
- UT Southwestern – William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital in Dallas — 44.53%
- Terrebonne General Health System in Houma, La. — 44.28%
- Keck Hospital at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles — 43.12%
- The Medical Center Of Southeast Texas in Port Arthur — 42.93%
- MUSC Health Columbia (S.C.) Medical Center Downtown — 41.87%