Survival From In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest During Nights and Weekends

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Abstract
The Institute of Medicine reports that as many as 98 000 preventable in-hospital deaths occur annually.1 Diagnostic, treatment, preventive, and other system errors have been identified as focus areas to prevent medical injury.2 The detection and treatment of arrests and their antecedents may be less effective at night because of patient, event, hospital, staffing, and response factors. If in-hospital cardiac arrests are more common or survival is worse on nights and weekends, this information could have important implications for hospital staffing, training, care delivery processes, and equipment decisions.