Heart attacks have become more survivable in recent decades, yet a new Florida study shows that survival gains are not shared equally across racial and ethnic groups. Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black patients who suffer a severe type of heart attack known as ST-elevation myocardial infarction are less likely to receive the recommended treatment, percutaneous coronary intervention, than non-Hispanic white patients.
Researchers analyzed 139,629 STEMI cases in Florida between 2011 and 2021, tracing each step in the emergency care pathway. They examined whether patients arrived at hospitals capable of performing PCI, whether they actually received the procedure, and whether those initially seen at non-PCI hospitals were transferred and treated, finding “significant racial disparities across all steps of the emergency care process.”
Among non-Hispanic white patients, 82.6% initially reached a PCI-capable hospital. Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic patients were less likely to start at such hospitals and, even when they did, Black patients were 10.7% less likely than white patients to receive PCI. For those who began at non-PCI hospitals, Black and Hispanic patients were less likely to be transferred, and Black patients who were transferred were 20.3% less likely to receive PCI at the second hospital.
“These are extremely large differences,” said lead author Charleen Hsuan, who noted they help explain higher mortality in Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black STEMI patients compared with white patients. She emphasized that people “are not receiving the care recommended by physicians and medical associations,” and said the findings spotlight where policymakers and hospital leaders could intervene to close racial gaps in life-saving heart attack treatment.
See: “Study in Florida finds racial disparities in heart attack treatment” (September 19, 2025)
