a study shows a 46% higher risk of dying for patients over 75 when they spend a night on a stretcher

The risk of dying in the emergency room would be 46% higher for patients over 75 who spend a night on a stretcher, according to a cohort study conducted in 97 emergency departments in France. France Inter was able to consult the results of this study presented, Thursday, at the Congress of emergency physicians.

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For the purposes of this study, 1,598 patients over the age of 75 were followed between December 12 and 14, 2022. At that time, France was in the midst of a triple epidemic: flu, Covid and bronchiolitis. Emergency services are saturated all over the country.

In this cohort, the patients were separated into two groups. On one side, 707 people who spent at least one night on a stretcher. On the other, 891 patients who were able to have a bed in a conventional service, before midnight on the day of their arrival at the hospital.

“The results are impressive”explains Jonathan Freundemergency doctor at the hospital of the Pitie-Salpetrierein Paris, and main author of this study at France Inter. “The excess mortality is 46%almost 50% so, if you spent a night on a stretcher in the emergency room. Worse, if we look more specifically at elderly patients who have limited autonomy, and therefore even more fragile, these patients die almost twice as much if they spend a night on a stretcher rather than in a hospital bed. classic”he says.

The study is still awaiting validation for publication in a scientific journal, but it already seems more precise than the usual feedback from the field. For example, between December and January last, the Samu Urgences de France union had counted 150 avoidable deaths after a lack of care.