The left ventricle (lower chamber) of the heart is the main pumping chamber of the heart. Ways that a doctor can assess how you're your left ventricle is functioning include:
- Taking your medical history
- Doing a physical exam
- Listening to the sounds of your heart
- Ordering other tests including an electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, blood work and an echocardiogram
Having the function of this key muscle evaluated is an important step in appropriately treating heart failure.
This measure reports what percent of patients with heart failure receive an in-depth evaluation of heart muscle function while they are in the hospital.
A high score is better than a low score.
The chart above shows how Cedars-Sinai's performance on this measure compared with the top 10% of hospitals in the United States, the national average for hospitals, the top 10% of hospitals in California and the California average. These data reflect care given to patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from April through June 2007. The national and California data reflect care given to patients from April 2006 through March 2007.
