Applying these findings to clinical practice will take some work, Newby admits. In addition, the patient and his or her family need to be psychologically prepared to cope with the impact of a heart attack, which for many people is a life-altering event. Antman and his co-author also note that discussions of shortened stays, specifically for mastectomies and births, were met with a huge public backlash and ultimately legislation that mandated certain inpatient lengths of stay. The primary value of the study is that it provides cost estimates for hospital stays over three days. We used to keep patients a few months, then a few weeks, now a few days.
Patients are anxious to go home.
Doctors are anxious to let them go home. If you've ever been in a hospital, you don't have to be a doctor to know who looks like they are doing well. One catch, according to a researcher, is that the hospital has to have all the resources to provide high-quality care within such a short time period, and most of them don't yet. Before leaving the hospital, patients need to be taking aspirin and cholesterol-lowering medications, and patients and family members need to be psychologically prepared to cope with the impact of a heart attack. All rights reserved.