People who suffer a heart attack at night or during a weekend are more likely to die, according to a recent study HealthDay reported.
Researchers at the Mayoclinic found that arriving at hospitals during nights and weekends increased the heart attack patients' risk of death. They believe the increased risk may result in thousands of extra deaths among those that suffer from heart attacks in the United States every year, HealthDay reported.
Researchers analyzed 48 studies conducted in Canada, Europe and the United States that included a total of nearly 1.9 million patients.
Based on their findings, researchers concluded that heart attack patients who arrived at the hospital during off-hours had a 5 percent higher risk of death both while in the hospital and 30 days after discharge than those who arrived during regular hours. They said they believe this led to an extra 6,000 deaths every year in the United States alone.
HealthDay reported that researchers estimated patients who had a type of heart attack called "ST elevation myocardial infarction" (STEMI) and arrived at the hospital during off-hours could lead to a delay of nearly 15 minutes between arrival and "undergoing balloon angioplasty to open a blocked coronary artery." this delay could increase death risk by 10 percent to 15 percent.
Heart attack patients who arrive to the hospital during nights and weekends "experience delays in urgent care and worse outcomes, and the gap seems to be increasing over time," University of Toronto doctors wrote in an accompanying editorial to the study.
Researchers noted that more factors need to be examined to figure out what causes differences in levels of care during regular and off-hours, such as number of staff and level of expertise.
To improve the care of off-hour patients, hospitals should "focus on improving their off-hour care, with the goal of providing consistently high-quality care 24 hours a day and seven days a week," the doctors wrote.
