s/o hospital: why no specialists on the weekend?

The attending physician makes the call whether or not a specialist is needed.  They are on call, but there are many reasons they come in only for emergencies.  Many on call physicians have at home access to medical records and test results that they can view and decided if immediate action is needed or if it can wait.  In fact at a number of facilities they are using phone systems that allow them to receive medical information and  test results where ever they are. Then they decide if it is emergent.

Most hospitals try very hard not to keep people hospitalized on the weekend unless they need that level of monitoring.  They normally would send you home and have you return Mon unless they needed to keep an eye on you for whatever the doctor ordered to manage your problem.

In other words, your mom's attending is monitoring her and will decide if/when other tests should be done.

My husband is a retired firefighter and the weekend and holiday shifts are part of their regular work schedule.

Because those doctors are already working Monday through Friday and now you want them to work Saturday and Sunday as well?

Emergencies are covered, your family member is stable and the doctor will read the results on Monday. I hope she is feeling better.

There are plenty of people available on weekends, but it's not full service.

In your mom's situation, the most important tests are actually the blood work tests. The enzyme tests that were drawn when she was first evaluated and then repeated 24 hrs later(and possible again in 48 hrs) are the key to her actual diagnosis of a heart attack. If these other tests were vital, they would have been done already. Echos are done routinely in situations where there is a high level of concern. What this tells you is that the level of concern is not high. If they thought she had something that needed emergent treatment, tests would have been done.

Best wishes for you mom

Because even specialists need time off and a work life balance. They are humans.

Our local hospital is very large and has certain specialists pretty much 24/7, or at least someone on call. I was seen by a cardiologist on a Saturday night, 1 am. My DH was seen by a staff rheumatologist multiple times at all hours of the day and night. And a nephrologist on a Sunday. My daughter was born on a Saturday and my OB was there all weekend.

I wonder if the difference is staff size and volume of patients - if you have enough people, you can provide more coverage without having to overtax your specialists. It may be one of te advantages of a larger hospital as compared to a smaller one.

I guess I can understand certain specialists only being available in an emergency if you're in the hospital on the weekend.  But I remember when I had older DS, I had him on Friday and that afternoon, a nurse came in and asked me if I wanted to meet with a lactation consultant.  Since this was my first baby, I excitedly said yes.  Then later the nurse came back and said the consultant was only available during the week, and it was too late that day for me to see her.  Well, I was discharged on Sunday morning so I never got to see her.  All worked out fine, but if you're going to offer lactation consultation services, it seems like they should be available every day of the week.  Women do have babies on the weekend. 

This is true.  While there may be a specialist available, he/she may not come in if that physician doesn't see the situation as emergent.  There are also nursing staff for those specialties and they don't typically work weekends either.  
Echos and stress tests are not emergent procedures.  EKGs and blood work is and usually done in the ER setting and not a specialty treatment.  A cath is usually an emergent procedure but most often that cath lab staff is just on-call for the weekends and takes about 20-30 minutes for staff to even arrive at the hospital.  

Most hospitals have a trauma and/or general surgeon on call on weekends. In our case, our trauma docs will take the general calls sometimes.  

There are reasons to keep a patient over night tho too.  It is pretty much the CYA game but can also give the patient some piece of mind that he/she is in a safer environment in case something does go badly.  


meredith

First,I hope that your mother is feeling better and is getting some answers about her diagnosis. I can't think of a time where an echo would be used in an emergency setting.It might be included in some work-ups but there are many other more reliable diagnostics that are typically trusted.As another poster mentioned,blood work and ekgs are commonly ordered and done in series,if this was a suspected cardiac related event.