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Weekend patients have higher death rate
Healthcare Strategist Trend Watch, March 16, 2007
Heart attack patients admitted to the hospital on the weekend are slightly more likely to die than those admitted during the week, says a study led by New Jersey medical student William J. Kostis, published in the March 15, 2007, edition of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Kostis's report was based on data collected from New Jersey hospitals between 1987 and 2002. Of the 231,164 heart attack patients that were admitted during the time period, 12.9% of weekend admittees died, compared to 12% of those treated during the week.
Between 1999 and 2002, Kostis's report says that 10% of heart attack patients admitted on a weekday were given a same-day angioplasty to open blocked arteries, while only 6.7% of weekend patients were offered the procedure. When given within a few hours of a heart attack, angioplasty can lessen damage to a person's heart and save his or her life.
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