weekend

People who have strokes who are admitted to the hospital on a weekend are more likely to die compared to people admitted on a weekday. Researcher Moira K. Kapral says that, "Stroke severity is not necessarily the reason for this discrepancy." Her study found that seven days after a stroke, people seen on weekends had an 8% percent risk of dying compared to a 7% percent risk of dying for those seen on weekdays. The results stayed the same regardless of age, gender, stroke severity, other medical conditions and the use of blood clot-busting medications. The reason for the differences in rates could be due to hospital staffing, limited access to specialists and procedures done outside of regular hours.
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We all know what WE think the “weekend effect: is: feeling lazy, doing chores, hopefully exercising, maybe having too much to eat and drink. But that could change for you in the future if you have too much fun. For physicians this phrase has another meaning: it has to do with the heart attacks, strokes, cardiac arrests and other time-sensitive illnesses during those “off hours,” that may not get treated effectively in a hospital emergency room. Thank goodness people who are in car crashes or suffer serious falls, gunshot or knife wounds and other injuries at nights or on weekends do not appear to be affected by the same medical care disparities, because you never know what will happen.
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