Patients are more likely to die during off-hours or on weekends. Doctors call it the “weekend effect”.A new study, based on a previous research about lower survival rates from in-hospital cardiac arrest during nights and weekends, showed that the survival trends during the odd-hours have improved in past decade or so.
The study is carried by Dr Uchenna Ofoma, indicated that the treatment has gotten better but the night-and-weekends gap is yet to be closed. Dr Ofoma is an assistant professor of medicine at Temple University and a critical care physician at Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania.
The study stated that between 2000 and 2014, weekend survival jumped from 16 percent to 25.5 percent, while weekend-weeknight survival rose to 21.9 percent from 11.9 percent.
Around 300,000 patients from 470 hospitals were monitored for the study. The result showed that more than half of the patients being studied experienced cardiac arrest during off-hours.
They also noted the difference between patients who experienced heart attacks or cardiac arrests outside and inside the hospital. For people experiencing heart attack outside the hospital, time was of essence. For someone to perform CPR or defibrillation was the key to survival.
