Overnight stay in the emergency department and mortality in older patients (6 November 2023)

Summary

This French cohort study in JAMA Internal Medicine aimed to find out whether spending a night in the emergency department (ED) associated with increased in-hospital mortality and morbidity among older patients. The results showed that older patients who spent a night in the ED showed a higher in-hospital mortality rate and increased risk of adverse events compared with patients admitted to a ward before midnight. This finding was particularly notable among patients with limited autonomy.

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