AHRQ Study Finds Weekend Hospital Care Not as Prompt as Weekday Care

Tags: AHRQ | hospital stay | weekday | weekend

A recent study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that weekend hospital care is not as prompt as weekday care, due largely to lower hospital staffing levels and services availability on the weekends, according to an AHRQ statistical brief.

The study, Characteristics of Weekday and Weekend Hospital Admissions, 2007, analyzed data from the 2007 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample.

The analysis found that of the 39.5 million community hospital stays in 2007, 7.7 million stays, or about 19 percent, began on a weekend.

Of these weekend stays, patients tended to experience delays in receiving major procedures. On the day of admission, weekend-admitted patients received 36 percent of major procedures that they would receive during their stays, compared to 65 percent for patients admitted on weekdays.

By the first day after admission, 64 percent of weekend-admitted patients with heart attacks received major cardiac procedures, compared with 76 percent for weekday-admitted patients. Similarly, 44 percent of weekend-admitted patients with GI bleeds received GI endoscopy, compared with 58 percent of weekday-admitted patients.

The study also found that a larger share of patients were admitted through the emergency department (65 percent weekend vs. 44 percent weekday) or died in-hospital (2.4 percent weekend vs. 1.8 percent weekday).

Read the AHRQ statistical brief on hospital weekend stays.

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