A Matter of Time

Should most hospitals send away heart attack patients?

When a heart attack strikes, cardiologist William O’Neill wants to see the patient quickly. But it doesn’t always work out that way. Once, for instance, a man whom O’Neill had previously treated was transported to a hospital in a different suburb of Detroit, even though the patient’s wife pleaded with the ambulance company to take him straight to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich.,