Loading...
Studies have suggested that for some medical and surgical conditions, patients presenting to hospitals on weekends have worse outcomes than those presenting during the week, when hospitals are fully staffed and all services are available. Using data from the 2007 nationwide audit of U.K. hospitals, investigators evaluated the possibility of such a “weekend effect” for upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB).
Among 6749 patients with UGIB, 1499 presented during the weekend, and 5250 presented during the week. Although those presenting on weekends versus weekdays were more likely to have shock (39% vs. 36%) or hematemesis (41% vs. 38%), no between-group difference in mortality was found before or after adjustment for demographic factors and com…