New heart stent centers cut deaths in towns that had none nearby

When a hospital that places heart stents opens near your community, the people who live there are more likely to survive a heart attack. That is the good news from a large California study, and it gives you a useful thing to know about your own area.

In towns that had no heart stents within a 30-minute drive, a new center was tied to 20% fewer deaths in the first month after a heart attack. Where a center was already close, a new one did not change survival.

How the study worked

Researchers looked at adults hospitalized for a heart attack in California between 2011 and 2022. They sorted communities by whether, in 2011, a hospital able to do the procedure was within a 30-minute drive. Then they compared what happened before and after a new center opened nearby. It was an observational study, so it shows a strong link rather than proof, and it covered one state. It was published Oct. 1, 2026, in JAMA Network Open.

What they found

About 15% of the patients lived in communities without a nearby center. Some of those communities saw a new one open close to home.

For them, the change was large:

• Reaching a hospital that can open a blocked artery jumped by 30.0 percentage points. That is about half again as many people, a 53% relative increase.
• Getting the procedure itself rose by 5.1 percentage points, about 16% more.
• Deaths within 30 days fell by 1.8 percentage points, about 20% lower.
• Deaths within one year fell by 2.8 percentage points, about 15% lower.

Where a center was already within reach, a new one brought smaller gains. Reaching such a hospital rose by 1.5 percentage points and getting the procedure by 1.0 point. Survival stayed the same. The results held when the researchers looked only at busier centers that handle 50 or more cases a year.

What is a heart stent procedure?

During a heart attack, an artery feeding the heart is blocked. Doctors can thread a thin tube to the spot, inflate a tiny balloon and often leave a small mesh tube called a stent to keep the artery open. The procedure is called percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI. Not every hospital has the team and equipment for it, so where you are taken matters.

What you can do today

Find out which hospital closest to your home does heart stent procedures. Search your area for hospitals with a “cardiac catheterization lab” or ask your primary care office. Then save that hospital’s name and address in your phone and share it with your family. If you ever have chest pain or pressure, pain in the arm, jaw or back, shortness of breath or a cold sweat, call emergency services and let the ambulance crew take you.