Fatal Fridays
Fatal Fridays
End-of-Week Hospital Discharge Linked to Death, Readmission
June 28, 2002 -- Are you leaving the hospital on a Friday? Watch out. Statistics say people who go home on Fridays have a higher risk of dying or needing to return to the hospital.
This risk is real but small. The study, appearing in the June 25 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, looked at hospital records for more than 2.4 million Canadian patients. It shows that leaving the hospital on a Friday increases the risk of a bad outcome by 4%.
"Even in the new millennium, something as simple as the day of the week influences how bad things happen," lead study author Carl van Walraven, MD, tells WebMD. "Even in a day and age when we can bust up blood clots and have robotic operations, the day of the week still has an effect."
Even so, it's important to put this risk into perspective, says van Walraven, an internal medicine specialist affiliated with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and with the universities of Ottawa and Toronto, Canada.
"The day of the week for discharge is statistically significant, but its association with bad outcomes is not as important as the effects of age, previous hospitalization, or chronic illness," he notes.
So what's happening on Fridays? Van Walraven thinks it's related to the fact that Friday is by far the busiest day. Both patients and doctors hope to get home for the weekend.
"On Fridays the nurses and doctors are more busy, and they could be missing important details," van Walraven suggests. "Or it could be that patients are less stable on Friday, or that they don't get immediate home care or services. But we are uncertain as to why this is happening. We just don't know."
Do the data apply to the U.S.? Van Walraven says it may. Others, like Mark V. Williams, MD, have their doubts. Williams is director for center for clinical effectiveness at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital and director of the hospital medicine unit at the Emory University School of Medicine. He's also president of the National Association of Inpatient Physicians, the main association for the new breed of doctors known as hospitalists.
Fatal Fridays
End-of-Week Hospital Discharge Linked to Death, Readmission
June 28, 2002 -- Are you leaving the hospital on a Friday? Watch out. Statistics say people who go home on Fridays have a higher risk of dying or needing to return to the hospital.
This risk is real but small. The study, appearing in the June 25 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, looked at hospital records for more than 2.4 million Canadian patients. It shows that leaving the hospital on a Friday increases the risk of a bad outcome by 4%.
"Even in the new millennium, something as simple as the day of the week influences how bad things happen," lead study author Carl van Walraven, MD, tells WebMD. "Even in a day and age when we can bust up blood clots and have robotic operations, the day of the week still has an effect."
Even so, it's important to put this risk into perspective, says van Walraven, an internal medicine specialist affiliated with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and with the universities of Ottawa and Toronto, Canada.
"The day of the week for discharge is statistically significant, but its association with bad outcomes is not as important as the effects of age, previous hospitalization, or chronic illness," he notes.
So what's happening on Fridays? Van Walraven thinks it's related to the fact that Friday is by far the busiest day. Both patients and doctors hope to get home for the weekend.
"On Fridays the nurses and doctors are more busy, and they could be missing important details," van Walraven suggests. "Or it could be that patients are less stable on Friday, or that they don't get immediate home care or services. But we are uncertain as to why this is happening. We just don't know."
Do the data apply to the U.S.? Van Walraven says it may. Others, like Mark V. Williams, MD, have their doubts. Williams is director for center for clinical effectiveness at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital and director of the hospital medicine unit at the Emory University School of Medicine. He's also president of the National Association of Inpatient Physicians, the main association for the new breed of doctors known as hospitalists.