Their response to these facts is completely wrong. The solution is NOT to staff hospitals on weekends with neurologists and MRI techs. This should tell them that maybe they should look at simpler, less labor and knowledge intensive options. Like the MindReader headset or urine testing or brain oximeter or Ischiban headband or the hand-held brain bleed detector
Doesn't anyone out there have a functioning brain? My god, I'm stroke addled and I can easily see what needs to be done and it didn't take any medical training at all.
A study from the UK found disparities in stroke care and outcomes between patients admitted to National Health Service (NHS) public hospitals on a Saturday or Sunday vs a weekday, providing more evidence of the so-called "weekend effect" [1].
The study showed increased mortality,
decreased tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) use, increased medical
complications, and decreased discharge home for those patients admitted
on weekends.
The researchers say "approximately 350
in-hospital deaths within seven days each year are potentially
avoidable, and an additional 650 people could be discharged to their
usual place of residence within 56 days if the performance seen on
weekdays was replicated on weekends."
"The lack of access to urgent treatments at
the weekends, such as brain scans and thrombolysis, is worrying and
something that could be readily addressed by changes to organizational
practice," first author William L Palmer (Imperial College London, UK) said in an interview.
The study was published online July 9, 2012 in Archives of Neurology.
Comprehensive assessment
The study involved 93 621 stroke patients
admitted to NHS hospitals from April 2009 through March 2010, of which
23 297 (24.9%) were weekend admissions.
"The study provides the most comprehensive
assessment of the weekend effect in stroke care, covering a range of
issues critical to patients," Palmer commented.
Statistically significant associations were
seen in five of six performance indicators, all of which were consistent
with lower treatment levels and poorer outcomes on weekends. The
largest effects were seen in rates of same-day brain scans and
thrombolysis (both lower on weekends) and in-hospital mortality (higher
on weekends).
Dr James S McKinney III (University of Medicine and
Dentistry of New Jersey, New Brunswick), said that this latest study on
the weekend effect "reinforces the need for stroke patients to be
admitted to dedicated stroke centers." McKinney was not involved in the
UK study.
Prior work by McKinney's group published last year in Stroke
has demonstrated that comprehensive stroke centers that maintain
adequate staffing with stroke experts on weekends provide quality care
regardless of the day of the week [3].
Palmer and colleagues note in their paper that
across London, a major reconfiguration of acute-stroke services
implemented since February 2010 has resulted in all patients with acute
stroke being admitted to one of eight hyperacute stroke units, where
thrombolysis and consultant-led care are available 24 hours a day, seven
days a week.
"Early results indicated that, within six
months, thrombolysis rates increased fourfold compared with the same
period in the previous year," they concluded.
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