Heart Failure? Don’t Go to the Hospital in January – or Overnight
Published at
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(DENVER) — Some patients’ fears about being admitted to the hospital overnight might just be valid. A recent study of heart patients linked higher death rates with overnight admissions.
Researchers at the University of Colorado recently analyzed heart failure admissions in the state of New York from 1994 to 2007 — a total of 949,907 admissions.
They found that death rates and length of stay were lowest when the patient was admitted between 6 a.m. and noon. But death rates for patients admitted between midnight and 6 a.m. were at their highest.
The researchers also compared days of the week and different months. It turns out the highest death rate and length of time in the hospital was for patients admitted on Fridays and during the month of January.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio