MyMedLab, Inc. today announced the creation of a new Acetaminophen Liver Panel in response to recent FDA concerns regarding the overuse of the common pain medication Acetaminophen. The FDA issues their advisory in response to the danger of continued overuse of Acetaminophen, in both OTC formulations as well as in combination with other medications. While very common and widely available, Acetaminophen in high doses and/or prolonged daily use, can lead to liver damage and death. Because of the easy access and OTC nature of Acetaminophen, many consumers are unaware of the health risks associated with its use.

“Convenient and affordable access to information allows consumers to make informed choices that can have dramatic effects on their health. Our Acetaminophen Liver Panel is a simple way for consumers concerned about the dangers addressed by the FDA to receive this valuable health information”, explains CEO David Clymer. “Creating a specific panel of tests that are immediately available to the consumer is an example of the MyMedLab commitment to common sense health care solutions.” says Clymer.

The MyMedLab Acetaminophen Liver Panel includes 8 specific tests providing a broad view of overall liver health, including the 3 major enzymes ALT, AST and GGT. This and other tests can be purchased by the consumer, at a fraction of the normal cost, and includes local collection at over 2000 locations without an appointment. The entire testing process from buying the test to receiving the confidential results is reviewed by a licensed physician in their state and can be completed in as little as 24 hours.

Additional advisory information is expected to become available following a recent joint meeting of the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee, the Nonprescription Drug Advisory Committee, and the Anesthetic and Life Support Drugs Advisory Committee that met on June 29 and 30, 2009.

About MyMedLab. MyMedLab is a privately held company with the primary mission of empowering consumers to make informed health care choices. As a leading provider of direct-to-consumer (DTC) laboratory testing services, MyMedLab has developed a unique suite of software applications and professional networks that enable the ordering, processing, and reporting of test results directly to consumers. This innovative set of services includes access to wellness tests organized by organ and disease profiles, physician oversight of test ordering, educational laboratory content, and results reporting through the web-based platform. In addition to the direct to consumer channel, MyMedLab also offers their software as a subscription service to physician offices or provider organizations developing community outreach programs that incorporate DTC services. For additional information, please see www.mymedlab.com.

7 Pillars Media Inc., was founded in Long Beach, California by a like-minded team of motivated and inspired people, who believe that it is never too late to improve, renew, and shine. Betterself.net, a self-improvement online resource, has a mission to create a movement by promoting the 7 Pillars to a balanced life and inspiring all of us to make changes within ourselves and to make a difference in the world.

Betterself.net has recently developed key partnerships with national client, eHarmony and southern California eye care facility, IQ Laser. Founder Steve Barrett welcomes these two strong partners to the up-and-coming magazine, “BetterSelf has been building a strong foundation and developing partnerships with top experts in the self-improvement industry. We are very proud to have eHarmony and IQ Laser as partners as we move into the summer. Summer is the season to shine and we look forward to introducing several more key companies that will join the BetterSelf vision”

Other recent additions for betterself.net include the launch of a top of the line community forum on the website. Visit the forums now at http://www.betterself.net/forum/ and participate in discussions within the 7 Pillars to a balanced life; Thoughts and Beliefs, Goals and Purpose, Inner Peace, Personal Relationships, Financial Freedom, Health and Fitness and Personal Legacy.

“Our forums at betterself.net are just the beginning of the features planned for our readership. We will launch our blogs over the next few weeks and a few other surprises to take our BetterSelf movement to another level” explains 7 Pillars founder, Steve Barrett.

We believe that success is infectious and we are doing our best to spread inspiration and motivation. BetterSelf Magazine currently maintains a Southern California presence and is on the Internet at www.betterself.net

Imagine donating a sample of your DNA to help researchers study the genetics of diabetes. The disease is common among your friends and family, and you’re proud of your role in finding out why. Now, imagine that some time later, you learn that your DNA has been used for other studies on topics you never expected—schizophrenia, human migration, inbreeding. Although your name isn’t attached to the sample anymore, scientists are using your DNA to draw conclusions about your community and your ancestors. Some of these studies violate your cultural beliefs.
That’s what happened to the Havasupai Tribe of Arizona. In 2004, they sued Arizona State University, the institution that originally collected the DNA, for failing to provide ethical oversight on the use of the samples. The case is still working its way through the courts.

The lack of federal regulation in this and other instances of DNA use will be addressed in the Policy Forum section in the July 3 issue of Science by Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, PhD, of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, and colleagues from four other universities. The need for a clear set of rules governing genetic ancestry testing is becoming more urgent, Lee said, given the proliferation of private corporations that promise consumers insight into their genetic origins.

“Direct-to-consumer genetic ancestry tests fall into an unregulated no-man’s land,” Lee and her colleagues wrote, “with little oversight and few industry guidelines to ensure the quality, validity and interpretation of information sold.”

Genetic ancestry tests, which can cost just a few hundred dollars and require only a simple cheek swab, are gaining popularity among genealogy hobbyists and curiosity-seekers. But without clear rules and regulations, consumers may not be getting what they were promised. (Lee wrote specifically about the challenges posed by the direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry in the June 5 issue of The American Journal of Bioethics.)

In this new piece, Lee and her co-authors respond to recent testing guidelines issued by the American Society of Human Genetics to discuss more broadly how policies that govern ancestry testing, including genetics research, are insufficient. While the federal Office of Human Research Protections requires researchers to obtain consent from donors of DNA, the rules aren’t clear about how scientists can then use these samples. In the Havasupai case, for instance, samples weren’t tagged with individuals’ names, so scientists believed they were free to use them for later studies. The problem is that, because scientists can now identify the ancestry behind the DNA, such samples can be used to draw conclusions about small, possibly vulnerable groups of people.

According to Lee and her colleagues, developing a set of rules is challenging because of the diverse interests of the different groups involved in genetic testing: for-profit companies, academic scientists, casual consumers, Native American tribes and specific ethnic or racial subsets of the population. Oftentimes, conversations among these players can be muddied by unclear terminology and disagreements about the nature of concepts such as “origin.” To geneticists, that word might conjure visions of genetic markers, the authors wrote. But to Native Americans, “origin” might mean a location or landscape important to the tribe’s cultural identity.

To bring the sides together, the authors call for stronger federal oversight. “We encourage regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control to help set industry standards for responsible and accountable practices in genetic ancestry testing,” said co-author Kimberly TallBear, PhD, assistant professor of science, technology and environmental policy at UC-Berkeley. Such leadership will be necessary, the authors wrote, in managing conflicts between groups that have given “little indication” that compromise will come easy.

Other co-authors on the piece are Deborah Bolnick, PhD, of the University of Texas; Troy Duster, PhD, of UC-Berkeley and New York University; and Pilar Ossorio, JD, PhD, of the University of Wisconsin Law School.

The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation’s top 10 medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.

iMedExchange, the fastest growing social network for physicians, announced today the launch of VitalSigns, a wholly owned family of resources and tools that provides actionable health care policy updates and peer insight on issues that matter to physicians.

The VitalSigns Blog helps physicians cut through the clutter by providing high-value postings on health reform and policy from peers and industry thought leaders. The VitalSigns Resource Center gives iMedExchange’s members the tools to learn more, get involved in advocacy (wherever they come down on the issues), and most importantly catalyze and engage their colleagues.

“VitalSigns provides physicians with a venue to take a critical and long overdue role in the health care discussion, which is increasingly important these days,” said Robert Coppedge, Executive Editor of VitalSigns. “Through our relationship with iMedExchange’s physician community, VitalSigns offers a unique window into what physicians are saying about the future of the health care system.”

VitalSigns is the latest online resource for physicians powered by iMedExchange. To learn more, visit:

VitalSigns Blog: http://vitalsigns.imedexchange.com

VitalSigns Resource Center (Free iMedExchange Membership Required): http://www.imedexchange.com

About iMedExchange:
iMedExchange (http://www.imedexchange.com) is the fastest growing online community for physicians, designed to foster professional and personal connections, increase productivity within the practice, and deliver career and lifestyle opportunities. The community is designed and supported by a team of Seattle-based technology, business, and healthcare experts, and backed by a national team of physicians who provide guidance and insight. Online and side-by-side with the community, iMedExchange is making exciting progress toward building one of the most useful online resources for physicians. The active and growing community includes doctors from around the country with representation across the entire spectrum of medical specialties.

In response to Congress’ debate on health care reform, state and local leaders from Maryland joined together at the Baltimore Medical System at Saint Agnes Hospital Community Care Center to call for comprehensive reforms to address the growing crisis of chronic disease in Maryland and nationwide. The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD) is a coalition committed to making chronic disease prevention and management a major part of comprehensive health reform.

The Maryland chapter of PFCD has 41 state partners and a distinguished panel of co-chairs in attendance today: former Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Sharon D. Allison-Ottey, M.D., Executive Director, The COSHAR Foundation, and Miguel McInnis, M.P.H., Chief Executive Officer, Mid-Atlantic Association of Community Health Centers

“The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease’s broad coalition of national and state partners believes it is impossible to contain rising health care costs — and tackle other issues of coverage and quality — without addressing chronic disease,” said Dr. Allison-Ottey.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), chronic diseases are responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths in the United States — taking the lives of more than 1.7 million Americans every year. Chronic diseases are also the primary driver of health care costs, accounting for more than 75 percent of the more than $2 trillion dollars spent each year on health care in the United States.

“We are in crisis. The cost of chronic disease is unsustainable. Our health care system is not making us healthy, and we have to change. We need to exercise, eat well, and get regular check ups,” said former Lieutenant Governor Townsend.

The financial burden in Maryland of chronic disease is tremendous. A study by the Milken Institute looked at seven common chronic diseases and found that in Maryland, the total treatment costs of these diseases amounted to nearly $5.2 billion in 2003. The total economic costs — in terms of treatment and productivity loss associated with poor health from chronic diseases — amounted to more than $25.7 billion. NOTE: STATE DATA CAN BE FOUND AT: www.chronicdiseaseimpact.org

The BSI-TOYOTA Collaboration Center (BTCC; Hidenori Kimura, Director), has succeeded in developing a system which utilizes one of the fastest technologies in the world, controlling a wheelchair using brain waves in as little as 125 milliseconds (one millisecond, or ms, is equal to 1/1000 seconds). BTCC was established in 2007 by RIKEN, an independent administrative institution (Ryoji Noyori, President), as a collaborative project with Toyota Motor Corporation (Akio Toyoda, President), Toyota Central R&D Labs, Inc. (Takashi Saito, President), and Genesis Research Institute, Inc. (Kiyoshi Nakanishi, Representative Director of Research). Also collaborating in the research were Andrzej Cichocki, Unit Leader, and Kyuwan Choi, Research Scientist, of BTCC’s Noninvasive BMI Unit.

Recently technological developments in the area of brain machine interface (BMI) have received much attention. Such systems allow elderly or handicapped people to interact with the world through signals from their brains, without having to give voice commands.

BTCC’s new system fuses RIKEN’s blind signal separation1 and space-time-frequency filtering2 technology to allow brain-wave analysis in as little as 125 ms, as compared to several seconds required by conventional methods. Brain-wave analysis results are displayed on a panel so quickly that drivers do not sense any delay. The system has the capacity to adjust itself to the characteristics of each individual driver, and thereby is able to improve the efficiency with which it senses the driver’s commands. Thus the driver is able to get the system to learn his/her commands (forward/right/left) quickly and efficiently. The new system has succeeded in having drivers correctly give commands to their wheelchairs. An accuracy rate of 95% was achieved, one of the highest in the world.

Plans are underway to utilize this technology in a wide range of applications centered on medicine and nursing care management. R&D under consideration includes increasing the number of commands given and developing more efficient dry electrodes. So far the research has centered on brain waves related to imaginary hand and foot control. However, through further measurement and analysis it is anticipated that this system may be applied to other types of brain waves generated by various mental states and emotions.

1 Blind signal separation (BSS) is a technology that separates the noise components and useful signal components from brain signals that can be used to control the wheelchair. It utilizes only on-line-recorded EEG signals.

2 Space-time-frequency filtering is a technology which extracts space and time patterns and frequency oscillation data from EEG electrodes to discriminate significant features and components which are able to reliably control the wheelchair.

On August 11th at 7pm, the Las Vegas Clark County Library will open its doors to Dr. Success (aka Andrea Goeglein, Ph.D.) to share her expertise in Positive Psychology and happiness through, “Igniting Your Spirit of Resilience, One Book at a Time.” A well known author herself, Dr. Goeglein’s intention is to help audiences everywhere use books as they were intended – to expand minds, enliven spirits and reinforce natural resilience in order to thrive through life’s many challenges.

There are few experts better equipped to emphasize why nothing is more valuable than a fierce and resilient attitude. Whether it is an illness, the economy, or simply day-to-day life, a spirit of appreciation and joy is an invaluable ally through all of life’s roadblocks. Featuring such books as “The Resiliency Advantage,” by Al Siebert and, “Breakdown, Breakthrough,” by Kathy Caprino, Dr. Goeglein will help all in attendance transform the pages of various “self-help” books into a tangible action plan for personal growth. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit http://www.lvccld.org/events and search: Goeglein.

Dr. Goeglein is a well known public speaker, a multi-media expert in Positive Psychology and a regular contributor on personal development books for KATZ TV’s AM Arizona, hosted by Tonya Mock and Lew Rees. She has also been a counselor and personal mentor to over forty top CEO’s of privately held companies, and was recently awarded The Making a Difference for Women Award 2009 by the Central Yavapai Sunrise Soroptimist (Arizona) Organization. This award honors women who, through their professional or personal efforts, are making extraordinary differences in the lives of women or girls. She is also writing her third book on the real-life applications of positive psychology and how even small changes in perception and attitude can have huge and far reaching effects in one’s life.

For the past three years (2006-2008), Andrea has also selflessly contributed hundreds of hours to share her expertise with women from all over the country, ranging in age from the teens to the nineties through the Prescott Professional Women’s Conference in Prescott, Arizona. The theme of this annual event is, “Power, Purpose, and Prosperity,” and nationally renowned speakers and authors provide come together to share inspiration and motivation in the areas of personal, professional, and spiritual growth. (Visit www.PPWC2008.com for details.)

Dr. Goeglein is currently in talks to create a women’s conference for a Las Vegas community college, which will take place in March 2010 during that college’s annual Celebration of Women month.

The national tour of the Keep America Working career fairs sponsored by Monster.com®, the leading global online career and recruitment resource and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW), travels back to the Southeast this week with a stop in New Orleans, Louisiana, tomorrow, June 30. The Keep America Working Tour includes more than 140 stops across the nation throughout 2009. Since its kick-off in Boston at the end of February, the tour has featured 1,132 employers with more than 24,650 jobs to fill and nearly 35,000 qualified job seekers ready to fill them. Tour stops have included job fairs in 30 major markets in 25 states. The nearly 25,000 jobs represented at the fairs are backed up by tens of thousands of jobs listed on Monster.com in these 30 metropolitan areas.
At the core of the Keep America Working Tour is Monster’s mission to help rebuild the American workforce. In a break with tradition for both Monster and other job fair organizers, Monster’s Keep America Working job fairs are free of charge to both job seekers and Monster employers with current job openings, to eliminate any cost barrier, and encourage the greatest number of employers with available jobs to link face-to-face with people who need those jobs.

Using an interpersonal, interactive model that goes well beyond the traditional career fair, the Keep America Working Tour brings together the tools and expertise job seekers need to not only find a job, but to also help to manage their careers. Job seekers who attend the career fairs can learn from Monster’s Career Experts by attending live theater presentations for advice and techniques they need to truly stand out from the crowd in today’s tough job market. On-site Kiosks feature Monster’s new career management tools, introducing the all-new Monster.com. Finally, job seekers can make the most of the on-site opportunity to meet face-to-face with market-leading employers looking to fill local jobs now, while employers meet highly-qualified candidates they need to strengthen their recruiting pipelines and fill their open positions in an efficient manner.

Keep Europe Working Tour

Following on the heals of its highly successful Keep America Working launch in the U.S., Monster Europe recently introduced Keep Europe Working with a series of career fairs across key European markets. The Keep Europe Working Tour kicked off in France and the Netherlands earlier this month, and will continue throughout Europe with fairs in Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Austria and Switzerland during September and October. Monster is working with a number of key European employers as well as its broad base of local partners across Europe to drive the availability of employment opportunities at each event.

In furthering its commitment to do its part to Keep America Working, Monster has also teamed with Dress for Success, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping disadvantaged and underserved women become self-sufficient through finding and retaining jobs. Representatives from Dress for Success, along with women participating in the local Dress for Success chapter in New Orleans, will also be on site at the June 30 job fair. Dress for Success clients will participate in pre-fair training sessions with Monster Career Advice Specialists to help demystify the career fair experience, while providing tips and tools to approach and speak with employers.

For more information about the job fairs in Monster’s Keep America Working Tour, visit http://monstervjf.adicio.com/ or follow Monster’s Keep America Working Tour on Twitter @MonsterKAW and connect on Facebook.

About Monster Worldwide

Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: MWW), parent company of Monster, the premier global online employment solution for more than a decade, strives to inspire people to improve their lives. With a local presence in key markets in North America, Europe, and Asia, Monster works for everyone by connecting employers with quality job seekers at all levels and by providing personalized career advice to consumers globally. Through online media sites and services, Monster delivers vast, highly targeted audiences to advertisers. Monster Worldwide is a member of the S&P 500 index. To learn more about Monster’s industry-leading products and services, visit www.monster.com. More information about Monster Worldwide is available at http://corporate.monster.com

ITC Holdings Corp. (NYSE: ITC) today raised concerns about the lack of needed comprehensive electricity transmission policy reforms included in the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The company also praised the Senate on its proposal addressing how to plan, build and pay for transmission in this country.

The House bill includes a historic program to control greenhouse gas emissions and a new federal mandate for the use of renewable energy resources, but it has minimal regulatory reforms for transmission. ITC commended efforts by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA) to expand the transmission title of the legislation, but the outcome was a very limited proposal that is far less helpful than its Senate counter part.

“Chairman Waxman and Rep. Inslee clearly appreciate the critical role transmission plays in facilitating the achievement of the energy policy goals and objectives of the legislation, including the development of renewable, emissions free resources. Unfortunately, they were unable in the limited time available to craft the needed provisions to be included in the bill,” said Joseph L. Welch, chairman, president and CEO of ITC.

The House bill does not address the issue of how needed transmission will be paid for, Welch said. While it has provisions related to planning, the measure essentially only serves to codify the disjointed processes that exist today. The House bill attempts to address transmission siting by giving the federal government the ability to step in if states do not site facilities. But the new provision only applies to the Western Interconnection. Superior, high quality wind resources are abundant within the Eastern Interconnection.

“Congress cannot fully achieve the objectives of reducing greenhouses gases set forth in this legislation without significant, additional reforms to the way transmission is planned, sited and paid for,” Welch noted.

Welch pointed out that under the current system of balkanized regulatory oversight, it is difficult to develop and implement strategically planned, cross-regional transmission projects. The nation must move beyond parochial concerns and draft policies that meet the nation’s energy security and environmental goals. The Senate energy bill has the framework required for Congress to achieve these goals as it moves forward on finalizing legislation, Welch said.

As the nation’s first and largest independent transmission company, ITC has a unique perspective on the obstacles to strategically developing new electricity transmission that will help meet the nation’s energy goals. A modern transmission grid, including a high-voltage backbone, will increase reliability across the system, allow the country to take full advantage of renewable energy resources and will save the economy billions of dollars each year through access to lower cost power and reduced congestion charges.

“Grid modernization and regional transmission construction are fundamental to a national energy policy,” Welch said. “In order for this policy to be effective, it must provide a comprehensive means for addressing current industry challenges.”

ITC has long advocated for modernizing America’s overburdened electricity grid and recently announced the development of its “Green Power Express,” a network of extra high voltage transmission lines that will transport power from wind-abundant areas of the Upper Midwest to Midwestern and Eastern states that demand clean, renewable energy. The Green Power Express will be an integral component to ITC’s efforts to create a high voltage backbone that can meet America’s renewable energy goals and eliminate costly inefficiencies in the grid.

About ITC Holdings Corp.

ITC Holdings Corp. (NYSE: ITC) invests in the electricity transmission grid to improve electric reliability, improve access to markets, and lower the overall cost of delivered energy. ITC is the largest independent electricity transmission company in the country. Through its subsidiaries, ITCTransmission, Michigan Electric Transmission Company (METC) and ITC Midwest, ITC operates contiguous, regulated, high-voltage transmission systems in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and portions of Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri, serving a combined peak load in excess of 25,000 megawatts. ITC is also focused on new areas where significant transmission system improvements are needed through subsidiaries ITC Grid Development, ITC Great Plains and ITC Panhandle Transmission. For more information, please visit: http://www.itctransco.com (itc-ITC)

A number of recent studies show that patients admitted to hospitals on nights and weekends are less likely to receive immediate urgent medical care than those admitted on weekdays. You are statistically more likely to die if you check into a hospital on a weekend rather than on a weekday. While these studies’ conclusions do not generally prove causation, there are a number of factors that may contribute to the lower survival rates on nights and weekends. These include fewer staff on duty, less experienced physicians on duty at these times, tired doctors and nurses, less frequent monitoring of patients, limited access to certain procedures at night and on weekends and slower responses to patient distress.

Journal of the American Medical Association Study

A study published in the February 20, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that patients who went into cardiac arrest during a hospital stay on a weekday had a higher survival rate than on the weekend or at night. This study examined 86,748 adult cardiac arrests that occurred in 507 hospitals between 2000 and 2007. The researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University defined the day/evening time period as 7:00 a.m. until 10:59 p.m., night from 11:00 p.m. until 6:59 a.m. and weekend from 11:00 p.m. on Friday to 6:59 a.m. on Monday.

Specifically, the study found that the survival rate in hospitals on the weekend was only 17.4 percent and 14.7 percent at night, compared with 20.6 percent during weekdays and weekday evenings. According to the study, if patients were treated on a weekday, they were 41 percent more likely to survive. In addition, the study found that people who experienced cardiac arrest at night were less likely to be monitored than during the day/evening, and that cardiac arrests were less likely to be witnessed at night.

The study’s authors noted that generally speaking, hospital staffing is different at night. There are fewer admissions at night, fewer diagnostic and therapeutic procedures done at night and in many cases, less experienced personnel are required to work the night shift. In addition, at night, it is more likely that patients will be seen by an on-duty physician who is covering other doctors’ patients. This means that the doctor may not be as familiar with the individual patient’s condition, and he or she may not be able to devote sufficient time to each patient because of the large number of people the physician must see.

New England Journal of Medicine Study

A study of patients suffering cardiac arrest that was published in the March 15, 2007 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine found that up to 10 additional people per thousand die after a Saturday or Sunday admission to a hospital. While these numbers may seem small, in the course of a year, the decreased weekend care could amount to several thousand preventable deaths in the U.S.

This study used information from the Myocardial Infarction Data Acquisition System (MIDAS) database and included 231,164 patients who were admitted to hospitals in New Jersey between 1987 and 2002. For all of these patients, acute myocardial infarction was the primary reason for admission and it was their first hospital admission with this diagnosis. The patient data was grouped into four-year intervals, and during the 1999-2002 period, there was a 12.0 percent death rate after 30 days for patients admitted on weekdays compared to 12.9 percent for those admitted on weekends.

The study also found that patients who suffer heart attacks after a weekend admission are less likely to receive the cardiac care and procedures routinely administered during the week. In addition, the percentage of patients who underwent procedures on the day of their admission was smaller on the weekend. For examples, the study found that from 1999 to 2002, only 6.7 percent of patients admitted on the weekend had angioplasty to open arteries on the day of admission compared to 10 percent of weekday admissions.

Other Studies

A number of other studies generally confirm that patients have lower survival rates on nights and weekends. For example, a 2009 study of patients suffering from peptic ulcer-related internal bleeding published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the journal of the American Gastroenterological Association Institute, found a higher weekend mortality rate. In addition, the weekend admission patients were more likely to undergo surgery and more likely to have longer hospital stays than weekday admissions.

Further, a 2007 Canadian study shows that ischemic stroke victims are more likely to die within seven days if they are admitted to a hospital on a Saturday or Sunday. An ischemic stroke occurs when an artery to the brain is blocked. If the artery remains blocked for more than a few minutes, brain cells can begin to die, making immediate medical care critical. In addition, the Canadian researchers found that patients admitted on the weekend had a 14 percent higher risk of dying than those admitted on a weekday. The study is inconclusive about the causes of the difference in mortality rates between weekdays and weekends, though researchers state that one likely cause is the reduction of medical personnel resources on weekends.

A Painful Reality

The statistics are very real for many people, including the family of a 61-year-old registered nurse. The Missouri woman experienced knee problems and was admitted to a hospital for an MRI. After receiving morphine for her pain, she stopped breathing, suffered cardiac arrest and died in the early morning hours after a weekend admission.

A medical malpractice lawsuit filed by Kansas City, Missouri, attorney Leland Dempsey alleges that her death could have been prevented if someone at the hospital had been monitoring her vital signs. Research shows that hospitals staff fewer nurses and doctors on weekends than on weekdays. So few staff members were available at the hospital where the woman died, no one was around to tell her husband of her death.

“The way he found out that his wife of years and years and years was dead, is he found her dead body in a room. That’s how he found out. Nobody was waiting at the door to tell him,” Dempsey said in a recent television news interview on Fox 4.

Another case involves the death of a 38-year-old mother who died five days after checking into a Missouri rehabilitation hospital. Physical therapy had been a routine part of the woman’s life since she had broken her neck in three places in a car accident she survived as a teenager.

After the birth of her son, she fell into a depression and stopped doing her exercises. Her husband urged her to check into the Missouri rehab hospital where she had previously stayed. On the fifth day of her stay, a Sunday, the doctor told her husband that she had died.

“These are preventable tragedies,” said Attorney Dempsey.

Conclusion

The studies discussed above show that patient mortality rates at hospitals are higher on nights and weekends. Of course, this does not mean that you should put off going to the hospital until Monday if you start experiencing symptoms on Saturday.

There are many potential reasons for the higher mortality rates during these times including short-staffing, less experienced physicians and nurses on duty and overtired doctors. If you have suffered serious injuries or a loved one has died after a hospitalization, you may wish to speak to an attorney about possible legal options.

Article provided by Dempsey & Kingsland, P.C.
Visit us at www.dempseyandkingsland.com