‘Weekend Effect’ Leads To An Increase In Mortality Rates in Hospitals

A new research published in the BMJ Quality & Safety Journal states that previous studies revealed the increased risk of mortality after the admission to the hospitals during weekends has failed to notice the severe conditions of the patients.

As per a report published by the Eurekalert, a research was carried out by a team of hard working researchers from the Manchester Center for Health Economics at the University of Manchester. It contradicts the established knowledge that the mortality rates tend to increase during the weekends.

The team identified that most of the patients admitted during the weekend were brought to the hospital by the means of ambulance. It showed that the patients suffered a high degree of illness. If the hospital considers the severity of the illness, there could be a reduced risk for mortality rates during the weekends. The authors of the research studied the same data on emergency admission which was used during the previous studies and has been consistently quoted by the government as 'weekend effect'.

The team analyzed nearly 3 million records for patients who were admitted to hospitals across England during the financial year of 2013-2014. Patients bought in the ambulance were higher on Saturdays (61%) and Sundays (60%), when compared to the patients who were admitted during the weekdays (57%). According to Manchester.ac.uk, patients who arrived in the ambulance had severe health problems, with a mortality rate of 5.5% when compared to mere 0.8% for patients who did not arrive by ambulance. The severity of patients bought in the hospital differed between weekends and weekdays and this difference was not taken into account during the previous studies.

The researchers also studied whether the patients were at a higher risk of dying during the night hours. Patients admitted during the night hours experienced more severity and this factor accounted for the higher death rates. The absence of senior doctors and poor access to diagnostic services can also be a factor for high mortality rate. The major omission from the previous studies shows that strong evidence are required to justify the major changes in hospital services.