If Possible, Avoid Hospitals on Weekends
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
February 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/health...

In the past decade, studies have found that patients treated at hospitals on weekends have inferior outcomes when compared with those receiving care on weekdays. In some cases, researchers have found, that can also mean a higher death rate.
THE BOTTOM LINE There is growing evidence that hospital mortality rates are higher on weekends.

Virtually always available
By Thomas Lee, Star Tribune
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http://www.startribune.com/business/1248...

Virtual Radiologic Corporation
The company didn't have enough radiologists to analyze images from emergency cases, causing long delays in the amount of time it took Virtual to provide "reads" back to hospitals and clinics.
angry chief executive Sean Casey fumed to a top executive that "the weekend was an operational disaster" and warned that "patients can die due to such irresponsibility."
"This is not a game," Casey wrote to then-chief operating officer Lorna Lusic. "This is a life-and-death situation for many of our patients."
But such problems underscore the high-stake risks for doctors and their patients of outsourcing some medical processes.
experts say teleradiologists should return reads from emergency care within 15 to 30 minutes.
the company was struggling with its caseloads, especially during weekend nights.
During the weekend of Oct. 21-22, 2006, 71 percent of emergent cases exceeded 30 minutes while 55 percent took longer than 45 minutes, according to an internal e-mail obtained by the Star Tribune. The average turnaround time for an emergent case was 50 minutes.
In December 2006, Virtual's performance was still shaky, according to company e-mails. On Dec. 16, 27 percent of emergent cases exceeded 30 minutes. On Dec. 28, 49 percent of emergent cases took longer than 30 minutes. Three days later, that number dropped to 18 percent
"This is much higher than what people would expect," said Joseph Tashjian, president of St. Paul Radiology. While all teleradiology firms experience some delays, Tashjian said: "There are some real safety issues. Every second you wait increases the risk for mortality. It could be devastating
.In an e-mail sent to then-COO Lusic on Oct. 22, Casey noted a case in which a patient with a brain hemorrhage "sat around ... for 90 minutes. Patients can die due to such irresponsibility."