Study suggests poorer outcomes for patients with stroke hospitalized on weekends
A study of patients with stroke admitted to English National Health Service public hospitals suggests that patients who were hospitalized on weekends were less likely to receive urgent treatments and had worse outcomes, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Neurology.
Studies from other countries have suggested higher mortality in patients who were admitted to the hospital on weekends for a variety of medical conditions, a phenomenon known as "the weekend effect." However, other studies have not identified an association between the day of admission and mortality rates due to stroke, so the debate over "the weekend effect" continues, according to the study background.
William L. Palmer, M.A., M.Sc., of Imperial College and the National Audit Office, and colleagues conducted a study of patients admitted to hospitals with stroke from April 2009 through March 2010, accounting for 93,621 admissions.
Performance across five of six measures was lower on weekends, with one of the largest disparities seen in rates of same-day brain scans (43.1 percent on weekends compared with 47.6 percent on weekdays). Also, the rate of seven-day, in-hospital mortality for Sunday admissions was 11 percent compared with a mean (average) of 8.9 percent for weekday admissions, according to study results.
"We calculated that approximately 350 potentially avoidable in-hospital deaths occur within seven days each year and that an additional 650 people could be discharged to their usual place of residence within 56 days if the performance seen on weekdays was replicated on weekends," the authors comment.
More information: Arch Neurol. Published online July 9, 2012. doi:10.1001/archneurol.2012.1030
Journal reference:
Archives of Neurology
Provided by
JAMA and Archives Journals
-
Why are people with stroke more likely to die if hospitalized on a weekend?
Nov 01, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Weekend hospital stays worse for kidney patients
Nov 19, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Weekend strokes may receive more aggressive treatment
Jan 11, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Better scheduling of admissions can reduce crowding at children's hospitals
May 24, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
In-hospital cardiac arrest occurring during night, weekends may lower patient survival rate
Feb 19, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
Why is zone 1 in liver more prone to ischemic injury?
15 hours ago
-
How can there be villous adenoma in colon, if there are no villi there
May 22, 2013
-
How can there be a term called "intestinal metaplasia" of stomach
May 21, 2013
-
Pressure-volume curve: Elastic Recoil Pressure don't make sense
May 18, 2013
-
If you became brain-dead, would you want them to pull the plug?
May 17, 2013
-
MRI bill question
May 15, 2013
- More from Physics Forums - Medical Sciences
More news stories
Controlling mood through the motions of mitochondria
(Medical Xpress)—Regulating the distribution of power in neurons is done by a system that makes the national electric grid look simple by comparison. Each neuron has several thousand mitochondria confined ...
Neuroscience
1 hour ago |
4 / 5 (1) |
0
|
Brain uses internal 'average voice' prototype to identify who is talking
(Medical Xpress)—The human brain is able to identify individuals' voices by comparing them against an internal 'average voice' prototype, according to neuroscientists.
Neuroscience
5 hours ago |
1 / 5 (1) |
0
|
Depression common among children with temporal lobe epilepsy
A new study determined that children and adolescents with seizures involving the temporal lobe are likely to have clinically significant behavioral problems and psychiatric illness, especially depression. Findings published ...
Neuroscience
5 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
The secret lives, and deaths, of neurons
As the human body fine-tunes its neurological wiring, nerve cells often must fix a faulty connection by amputating an axon—the "business end" of the neuron that sends electrical impulses to tissues or other ...
Neuroscience
7 hours ago |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
|
Regenerating spinal cord fibers may be treatment for stroke-related disabilities
A study by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital found "substantial evidence" that a regenerative process involving damaged nerve fibers in the spinal cord could hold the key to better functional recovery by most stroke victims.
Neuroscience
7 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
|
Statin use is linked to increased risk of developing diabetes, warn researchers
Treatment with high potency statins (especially atorvastatin and simvastatin) may increase the risk of developing diabetes, suggests a paper published today in BMJ.
Consumers largely underestimating calorie content of fast food
People eating at fast food restaurants largely underestimate the calorie content of meals, especially large ones, according to a paper published today in BMJ.
Dual-source cardiac CT IDs CAD in hard-to-image patients
(HealthDay)—In patients who have previously been considered difficult to image, dual-source cardiac (DSC) computed tomography (CT) can identify clinically significant coronary artery disease, according ...
WHO: Scientific red tape mars efforts vs. virus
International efforts to combat a new pneumonia-like virus that has now killed 22 people are being slowed by unclear rules and competition for the potentially profitable rights to disease samples, the head ...
Future doctors unaware of their obesity bias
Two out of five medical students have an unconscious bias against obese people, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The study is published online ahead of print in the Journal of ...
When oxygen is short, EGFR prevents maturation of cancer-fighting miRNAs
Even while being dragged to its destruction inside a cell, a cancer-promoting growth factor receptor fires away, sending signals that thwart the development of tumor-suppressing microRNAs (miRNAs) before it's dissolved, researchers ...