Hospitals slow on cardiac arrest treatment at night

Cardiac arrest: avoid nights, weekend, study says
Wed Feb 20, 2008
Daytime dozing may be warning sign of stroke
Reuters


CHICAGO (Reuters) - People who have a cardiac arrest in the hospital at night or on the weekend are far less likely to survive than those who suffer one during the day, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Studies suggest this may be at least partly because of inadequate staffing at off-peak hours.

The researchers found only 14.7 percent of people whose hearts stop pumping during the night survive, compared with nearly 20 percent of people during the day.

Those who had a cardiac arrest at around 3 p.m. had the survival rate, Dr. Mary Ann Peberdy of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and colleagues reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The only part of the hospital with difference in survival day or night was the emergency department. "That survival difference by time of day was there regardless of where we looked, except in the emergency department," Peberdy said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1929246120080220?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100