The American journal of medicine
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Comparative Study
Effects of weekend admission and hospital teaching status on in-hospital mortality.
The effect of reduced hospital staffing during weekends on in-hospital mortality is not known. We compared mortality rates between patients admitted on weekends and weekdays and whether weekend-weekday variation in rates differed between patients admitted to teaching and nonteaching hospitals in California. ⋯ Patients admitted to hospitals on weekends experienced slightly higher risk-adjusted mortality than did patients admitted on weekdays. While overall mortality was similar for patients admitted to all hospital categories, the weekend effect was larger in major teaching hospitals and is cause for concern.
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The goals of this study were to determine if very early revascularization might ameliorate the adverse prognosis associated with ST-segment depression in patients with unstable angina/non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. ⋯ ST-segment depression and T-wave inversion on the admission ECG were important predictors of outcome in patients with unstable angina/non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction undergoing very early revascularization. In contrast to the considerable mortality seen in patients with ST-segment depression, T-wave inversion was associated with a more favorable outcome.
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Many hospital departments tend to have lower staffing levels on weekends. We evaluated the use of selected urgent procedures for emergently hospitalized patients and measured the time until procedure based upon the day of hospital admission. ⋯ Relatively few urgent procedures are performed in emergently hospitalized patients on the weekend, suggesting that greater attention to weekend care might result in more timely interventions and shorter lengths of stay.