Researchers tracked emergency department admission at 501 hospitals in Australia between 2000 and 2007. Twenty-seven percent of admissions occurred on weekends, and 28 percent of patients admitted to hospitals through a weekend visit to the ED died.
Sixteen of 430 diagnosis groups accounted for 40 percent of all deaths when accounting for all weekend admission patients.
In addition, many diagnoses presented different mortality rates when admitted on weekends versus any other point in the week. These diagnoses included pulmonary embolism, pulmonary edema and peripheral vascular disorders.
The study concluded better knowledge of these risk-patterns could improve weekend mortality rates.
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