University medical centers may be the place to go for complicated medical issues, but if you're having a heart attack, you might do better at a community hospital.

New data released Thursday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reveals death rates among Medicare patients from heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia for every hospital in the U.S. for the past two years. It includes patients who died within 30 days of leaving the hospital.

In the Triangle, community hospitals' rates are just good, if not better, than at the major medical centers.

• Here's a breakdown of Triangle area hospitals' heart attack mortality rates:
• Cape Fear Valley Medical Center 16.6%
  Chatham Hospital 15.8%
  Durham Regional 14.8%
  Duke Raleigh 16.7%
  Duke University Medical Center 16.7%
  Johnston Memorial (Johnston Med Ctr) 16.7%
  Rex Hospital 13.8%
  UNC Hospitals 16.2%
  WakeMed Cary 14.6%
  WakeMed Raleigh 15.7%

If you dig a little deeper into the information, you can see the number of patients treated and even create your own comparison sheet on how hospitals performed on national standards of care for treatment, like giving heart attack patients aspirin upon arrival.

The national average for heart attack mortality is 16.1 percent, but some of the top-performing hospitals in the country had rates closer to 12 percent.

See the information for yourself at http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/Hospital/Search/Welcome.asp?dest=NAV|Home|Search|Welcome#TabTop

An interactive map and information also is available from USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/hospitals-graphic.htm