Good news: More survivors

Hope this at least partly because of the concerted campaigns to get people to hospitals quickly if they have stroke symptoms.

Death rate from strokes dropped 26% in hospitals:

The rate declined to 92 deaths per 1,000 stroke patients in 2007, from 125 deaths per 1,000 seven years earlier, according to data released today by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The rate for men fell 29 percent compared with 24 percent for women, the figures showed. Fatality figures also receded for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia, the agency reported.

The numbers reflect advances in the care that patients receive at the hospitals, said Roxanne Andrews, a senior researcher at the agency, part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

“Patients are getting to the hospital earlier and maybe patients are a little healthier than they used to be,” Andrews said in a telephone interview. “But the decline does show that patients are getting better treatment partly because the technology for treating patients is getting better.”