Table 2.

Association between initial cardiology admission and use of recommended medications, use of diagnostic procedures for coronary artery disease, follow-up care, and adverse events (inpatient complications or death) during 30-day follow-up.^*

	Complete Data			Propensity-Matched Data
Process Measure	Cardiology Service (n=372)	Noncardiology Service (n=172)	Adjusted OR (95% CI)†	Cardiology Service (n=156)	Noncardiology Service (n=156)	Adjusted OR (95% CI)‡
Inhospital medication, %
Aspirin use	71	49	1.2 (0.6–2.4)	56	53	0.95 (0.5–1.9)
Heparin use§	28	20	1.1 (0.6–2.2)	20	20	0.93 (0.5–1.9)
β-Blocker use§	38	29	1.2 (0.6–2.6)	31	29	1.0 (0.4–2.3)
Diagnostic evaluation, %
Noninvasive testing	73	54	2.5 (1.7–3.8)	72	55	2.0 (1.4–3.0)
Cardiac catheterization	33	6	3.9 (1.7–8.9)	21	6	3.2 (1.3–7.4)
Subsequent care, %
ED revisit or readmission	15	18	0.86 (0.5–1.6)	13	19	0.79 (0.4–1.5)
Outpatient follow-up	71	74	0.96 (0.6–1.5)	74	75	0.84 (0.5–1.4)
Inpatient complications or 30-day mortality	2.4	1.7	1.9 (0.5–7.7)	3.2	1.9	2.4 (0.6–10)

^*Reference group is noncardiology patients.

^†Adjusted for propensity of being admitted to cardiology, comorbidity score, predicted probability of acute cardiac ischemia, and intervention period.

^‡Adjusted for covariates with differences that persisted after matching (Medicaid insurance, symptom relief from nitroglycerin, history of congestive heart failure, comorbidity score, initial systolic blood pressure), predicted probability of acute cardiac ischemia, and intervention period.

^§Limited to 511 patients with intermediate to high characteristics (as defined by the Agency for Healthcare Policy and Research guideline or elevated troponin levels).