Friday, March 9, 2007

Hospitals are more dangerous on weekends

If you have to have a stroke, have it during the week. Not that you can control the time or even the day when you have a stroke, but statistics say that you have a better chance to survive if you have a stroke during the week.
I would think that hospitals would be better staffed during the weekend when most things that require a hospital visit happen. For instance, drunk drivers, shootings and other medical emergencies happen. The research found out that patients admitted to the hospital on the weekend had a 14% higher risk of dying.
Fourteen percent is a huge risk. It is not a one or two percent risk like one would think. That is a huge jump. Almost 20 people out of 100 have this fate.
I could not believe that hospitals have numbers like this. I realize that there are times that are more dangerous to go to the hospital, but the weekend would not be what I thought. I thought that was the time when the best of the best would be there, not the kids out of med school.
Obviously this does not include all hospitals, it is just the average. But if a person has a stroke, heart attack or something else that is life treating, I would hope that the chances of surviving did not depend on the date you were admitted.

No comments: