Table 1.

Baseline Demographic and Clinical Characteristics^*

	Region
	NE	S	MW	W	Total
Number of patients	9,305	30,303	15,631	12,650	67,889
Region of country, %	13.7	44.6	23.0	18.6
Mean age, ±SD	66.8 ± 10.6	64.5 ± 10.9	65.0 ± 10.8	64.8 ± 11	65.0 ± 10.9
Gender, % male	98.5	98.7	98.8	98.2	98.6
Ethnicity, % white	85.0	81.5	86.4	85.5	83.8
Comorbid conditions, %
Hypertension	46.1	45.5	45.1	40.5	44.6
Diabetes	30.3	24.2	27.9	25.6	26.2
Congestive heart failure	24.9	20.2	22.2	22.5	21.7
Hyperlipidemia	13.1	13.3	16.0	16.6	14.5
Atrial fibrillation	10.5	8.3	8.8	9.8	9.0
COPD	19.4	18.8	21.4	18.3	19.4
Stroke†	1.1	1.1	1.1	1.0	1.1
Mean number of discharge diagnoses at index hospitalization, ±SD	5.9 ± 2.6	5.5 ± 2.5	5.7 ± 2.6	5.6 ± 2.5	5.6 ± 2.6
Median length of index admission, days, mean ±SD	13.8 ± 18.6	11.5 ± 13.0	11.0 ± 13.2	9.9 ± 10.7	11.4 ± 13.6
Charlson Index, %	2.6 ± 1.8	2.3 ± 1.7	2.4 ± 1.7	2.4 ± 1.7	2.4 ± 1.7
0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
1	30.0	37.1	33.6	36.6	35.2
2	30.3	30.0	30.3	29.7	30.1
>2	39.7	32.9	36.2	33.7	34.7
Disposition at discharge from the index hospitalization, %
Discharged home	65.7	72.0	66.0	71.2	69.6
Transfer to another hospital	16.5	12.1	18.3	13.8	14.5
Died	10.7	10.9	9.7	9.0	10.3
Nursing home	3.4	2.3	3.5	3.2	2.9
Other	3.6	2.7	2.4	2.7	2.7
Patients with procedures at index admission (%)
Catheterization†	25.9	27.0	26.7	26.4	26.7
CABG	11.4	10.8	10.5	12.8	11.2
PTCA	8.3	9.1	9.3	8.4	8.9
CABG or PTCA	18.3	18.7	18.3	19.8	18.7

^*P = .001 for comparisons between regions except where indicated.

^†P > .05 for comparisons between regions.

NE, Northeast; S, South; MW, Midwest; W, West; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; CABG, coronary artery bypass grafting; PTCA, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.