Prevalence and Characteristics of Outpatient Palliative Care Services in California

3. A total of 176 patients were immediately transported to hospital (4 refused). Of these, 90 (51%) were discharged with thehospital record–determineddiagnosisof acutemyocardial infarction (AMI). One-fifth of the remaining 641 patients (126 of 641) were reexamined within the 3-day follow-up because of continuing complaints, and another 15 AMIs were diagnosed. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 86.6%, 83.3%, 53.8%, and 97.6%, respectively. The overall mortality rate for the study population was 3.3% (27 patients). Mortality among patients with a negative kit result was 3% (19 patients) during the 3 days of follow-up (4 from cardiogenic shock, 2 from sudden cardiac death with failed resuscitation, and 13 from unrelated causes). Of 180 patients, 8 (4.4%) with a positive kit result died from sequelae of an AMI (7 underwent cardiogenic shock and 1 had a post-AMI stroke).