MSNBC: "Why you should avoid having a weekend heart attack"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

:spray:

Nights, weekends risky times for heart patients
Study finds longer hospital waits for life-saving treatment after-hours

Updated: 10:28 a.m. ET Aug. 17, 2005

CHICAGO - A new study finds that heart attack sufferers who go to hospitals on nights and weekends wait longer for an artery-clearing angioplasty than patients during regular hours, increasing their risk of dying.

After-hours patients waited an average of one hour and 56 minutes for what is considered the best treatment for heart attacks in most cases, compared with 95 minutes for patients during regular business hours.

Current guidelines recommend patients wait no longer than 90 minutes from the time they enter the emergency room. Four out of 10 patients waited more than two hours for a balloon angioplasty, according to the study of 68,000 patients published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

Delays raised the risk that patients would die by about 7 percent. Since two-thirds of heart attack patients showed up at hospitals on nights and weekends, the study suggests that hospitals must find better ways to more quickly bring after-hours staff into cardiac catherization labs, where the angioplasties are performed, said study co-author Dr. Harlan Krumholz of Yale University School of Medicine. “We need to ensure there are systems in place to get patients the best care possible, no matter when they show up,” he said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8975842/

[GOPisEvil]

1. Yeah, I'd like to schedule my heart attack for 2:30 on a Thursday, please.

:eyes:

[Fenris]

5. I'll pencil that in.

:D

[greekspeak]

7. Do you have any insurance?

Sorry if you don't. :shrug:

[GOPisEvil]

8. Luckily, I do.

It's not much, but you'll get most of your money. :P

[Wickerman]

2. NewsFlash: Avoid getting cancer early in life, too

Get it when you're old instead, 'kay?

I guess there is a larger point here, but what a dumbass headline.

[Roland99]

3. Why the disparate time values? 1 hour 56 min. versus 95 minutes

95 minutes is only 21 min. less than the former. That's not a *whole* lot of difference, esp. after that much time has already passed.

[Hugin]

6. A little time makes a *big* difference during an attack.

That's 21 minutes less heart tissue is lacking oxygen.

[Roland99]

12. After 95 min. is it going to matter much? Esp. if <90 min. is recommended?

[Hugin]

4. Okay, I've penciled it in for 9:00am on a Tuesday... Say, 2008.

You think the Boss'll let me take sick leave?

It's on the planner.

[elperromagico]

9. Well, I could reschedule my heart attack for next Thursday

but I'd have to bump my stroke to Friday.

Any advice on strokes?

[Hugin]

10. Yeah, you can improve your putts by changing your grip.

Also, square your shoulders with the green.

[Initech]

11. Must be a slow news day?

Not like MSNBC could talk about anything else now could they?

[Nikia]

13. Although I wonder about the quality of my local hospital

We have always gotten right in on nights and weekends. When I had my first panic attack and said that I was really dizzy and tingly, a nurse appeared with a wheel chair and attended to me in a room immediatly. When I came in with chest pain and nausea, which turned out to be a kidney stone, I was suddenly wheeled into a room also. Both times, a nurse was with me until I saw the doctor, which was in less than 10 minutes. The panic attack happened on a Sunday night. I went in with the chest pains on a Sunday morning.
When my husband went in on a Sunday morning for his knee injury, he was seen by a nurse immediatly and a doctor in about 20 minutes. When he went in with a sore throat on a week day night, the wait was longer, maybe 45 minutes, partially because they were changing shifts and they considered his case non urgent.
In my hometown in Ohio, I had a potentially life threatening side effect reaction. I was immediately seen and monitored by a nurse. I saw a doctor, who was attending to a heart attack victim at the time, in less than 20 minutes.
By contrast, I went to the ER in a bigger city with a severe headache, tinglness, and dizziness. I waited for 90 minutes. In all fairness, there had been an accident involving several victims who were severely injured, but you never know when these things would occurr.
Going to a smaller town hospital, if it provides decent care, might be the way to go, if it is convient if you have an emergency on a night or weekend.