ArticleJournal of hospital medicine2015
Similar outcomes among general medicine patients discharged on weekends.
Article in Journal of hospital medicine, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Postoperative Outcomes Following Preweekend Surgery.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Performance management of generalist care for hospitalised multimorbid patients-a scoping review for value-based care.Frontiers in health services · 2023Article
- Death and readmissions after hospital discharge during the December holiday period: cohort study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2018Article
- Training the generals of the future.Future hospital journal · 2016Article
- Outcomes of common general surgery procedures for patients discharged over weekends at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia.Annals of Saudi medicineArticle
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHospitals reduce staffing levels and services on weekends. This raises the question of whether weekend discharges may be inadequately prepared and thus at higher risk for adverse events postdischarge.
objectiveTo compare death or nonelective readmission rates 30 days after weekend versus weekday discharge.
designRetrospective cohort.
settingAll teaching hospitals in Alberta, Canada. PATIENTS: General internal medicine (GIM) discharges (only 1 per patient). MEASUREMENTS: Analyses were adjusted for demographics, comorbidity, and length of stay based on a previously validated index.
resultsOf 7991 patients (mean age, 62.1 years; 51.9% male; mean Charlson 2.56; 57.5% LACE ≥10) discharged from 7 teaching hospitals, 1146 (14.3%) were discharged on a weekend. Although they had substantially shorter lengths of stay (5.64 days, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.35-5.93 vs 7.86 days, 95% CI: 7.71-8.00, adjusted P value < 0.0001) and were less likely to be discharged with homecare support (10.9% vs 19.3%) or to long-term care facilities (3.1% vs 7.8%), patients discharged on weekends exhibited similar rates of death or readmission at 30 days compared to those discharged on weekdays (10.6% vs 13.2%, adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.77-1.16), even among the 4591 patients deemed to be at high risk for postdischarge events based on LACE (length of hospital stay, acuity of admission, comorbidity burden quantified using the Charlson Comorbidity Index, and emergency department visits in the 6 months prior to admission) score ≥10 (16.8% vs 16.5% for weekday discharges, aOR: 1.09 [95% CI: 0.85-1.41]).
conclusionsGIM patients discharged from teaching hospitals on weekends have shorter lengths of stay and exhibit similar postdischarge outcomes as patients discharged on weekdays.
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