Early transit of hospitalized myocardial infarction patients.

The substantial number of patients admitted to hospital with acute myocardial infarction often presents a problem in terms of bed occupancy, particularly in acute receiving wards after the initial period of intensive monitoring. The suggestion by Rose (I972) of a period of less than I4 days as an appropriate length of stay in hospital for patients with uncomplicated but definite myocardial infarcts would go some way towards relieving this situation. Such a recommendation would necessitate precise assessment or an attempt at clinical grading of severity, either using a prognostic index (Peel et al., I962) or some more simple system of grading.