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Stroke fatality on weekends—a case for organized stroke care

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In patients with stroke, weekend hospitalization has been associated with increased mortality and worse outcomes compared with hospitalization on weekdays, prompting calls for interventions to improve off-hours hospital care. New data suggest that organized systems of stroke care could be one means of attenuating this so-called weekend effect.

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Acknowledgements

M. K. Kapral is supported by a Career Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, ON, Canada.

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Correspondence to Moira K. Kapral.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Kapral, M., Reeves, M. Stroke fatality on weekends—a case for organized stroke care. Nat Rev Neurol 9, 367–368 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2013.108

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