Table 1. Patient Demographic, Clinical, and Admission Process Characteristics.

Characteristics (n =1858)	Parameters*	Missing (%)
Demographic characteristics (Source: SHEP Patient Survey†)
Age in years at admission [mean (SD)] (y)	68.0 (11.1)	10.4
Sex (male %)	98.2	5.8
Education (%)		3.4
High school (HS) or less	57.7
Some college or post HS	28.4
Four years college or more	13.9
Racial background (%)		5.1
White	85.9
African American	10.4
Other minority	3.6
In general, would you say your health is (%)		3.3
Poor	13.3
Fair	35.8
Good	33.5
Very good	14.5
Excellent	3.0
Clinical condition and history (Source: EPRP Chart Abstraction)
History of cancer (yes %)	6.1	7.7
History of lipid disorders (yes %)‡	69.9	7.6
History of CHF (yes %)	32.8	0
History of dementia (yes %)	7.2	0
Stroke within past 5 y (yes %)§	2.2	0
Highest serum creatinine [mean (SD)]	1.55 (1.26)	11.7
First troponin level was negative (yes %)§	31.9	0
Heart rate upon hospital arrival [mean (SD)]	84.1 (22.0)	27.3
Systolic BP upon hospital arrival [mean (SD)]	145.4 (27.5)	27.3
Pain symptoms (%)		27.3
Chest pain	39.5
Chest pressure	16.2
Radiating pain	26.9
Admission process characteristics (Source: EPRP Chart Abstraction)
Night admission (yes %)‖	25.1	2.1
Weekend admission (yes %)¶	32.1	2.2
Transfer from ED of another hospital (yes %)	0.9	3.2
In hospital already when had AMI (yes %)	2.9	0.2

^*On the basis of total nonmissing cases.

^†Except for age and sex, which in this study were obtained from the EPRP chart abstraction.

^‡And/or on lipid-lowering medications before hospitalization.

^§Available for FY04 cases only.

^‖Between 11:00 pm and 8:00 am, any day.

^¶Between 5:00 pm Friday and 7:00 am Monday.