Higher mortality rates amongst emergency patients admitted to hospital at weekends reflect a lower probability of admission.

ABSTRACT: Objective Patients admitted as emergencies to hospitals at the weekend have higher death rates than patients admitted on weekdays. This may be because the restricted service availability at weekends leads to selection of patients with greater average severity of illness. We examined volumes and rates of hospital admissions and deaths across the week for patients presenting to emergency services through two routes: (a) hospital Accident and Emergency departments, which are open throughout the week; and (b) services in the community, for which availability is more restricted at weekends. Method Retrospective observational study of all 140 non-specialist acute hospital Trusts in England analyzing 12,670,788 Accident and Emergency attendances and 4,656,586 emergency admissions (940,859 direct

SUBMITTER: Meacock R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5482385 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature