Quality and safety of in-hospital care for acute medical patients at weekends: a qualitative study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The increased mortality risk associated with weekend admission to hospital (the 'weekend effect') has been reported across many health systems. More recently research has focused on causal mechanisms. Variations in the organisation and delivery of in-hospital care between weekends and weekdays have been identified, but this is not always to the detriment of weekend admissions, and the impact on mortality is uncertain. The insights of frontline staff and patients have been neglected. This article reports a qualitative study of patients and clinicians, to explore their views on quality and safety of care at weekends.

Methods

We conducted focus groups and interviews with clinicians and patients with experience of acute medical care, recruited from three UK hospital T

SUBMITTER: Sutton E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6310936 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature