Researchers from Houston Methodist Hospital, UCLA and the University of Toronto analyzed data from nearly 430,000 patients who underwent one of 25 common surgeries in Canada between 2007 and 2019. They compared outcomes for those who had procedures on the last day before a weekend or holiday — typically a Friday — with those who had surgery immediately after the weekend, usually a Monday.
The study found that patients who had surgery preceding the weekend were 5% more likely to experience complications, readmissions or death up to one year later. While prior research on the weekend effect has yielded mixed results, this study is among the largest and most comprehensive to date, spanning multiple surgical specialties and examining both short- and long-term outcomes.
The findings suggest factors such as reduced weekend staffing, limited access to specialists and differences in post-operative care coordination may contribute to worse outcomes for patients recovering over the weekend, researchers said.
“It is important for healthcare systems to assess how this phenomenon may impact their practices to ensure that patients receive excellent care irrespective of the day,” researchers concluded.
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