Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
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Although recent evidence suggests worse outcomes for patients admitted to the hospital on a weekend, the impact of weekend discharge is less understood. ⋯ Among patients in California with AMI, CHF, and PNA, discharge on a weekend was not associated with an increased hospital readmission rate.
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Outcomes for patients hospitalized on weekends are often worse for adults-the so-called "weekend effect." Less is known about the weekend effect for children. We examined 55,383 hospitalizations at a tertiary care children's hospital. We used logistic regression to examine the associations of weekend admission and weekend discharge with unplanned 30-day readmission. ⋯ Children admitted on the weekend had significantly higher odds of unplanned readmission compared to children admitted on weekdays (adjusted odds ratio = 1.09 [95% confidence interval: 1.004-1.18]). In contrast, being discharged on the weekend was not associated with readmission. In conclusion, children admitted on the weekend have higher rates of 30-day unplanned readmission than children admitted during the week, suggesting care differences on the weekend related to initial clinical management rather than discharge planning.
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Prior studies suggesting that the presence of emergency department (ED) observation units decrease overall ED hospital admissions have been either single-center studies or based on model simulations. The objective of this preliminary national study is to determine if the presence of ED observation units is associated with hospitals having lower ED admission rates. ⋯ In this preliminary study, we did not find an association between the presence of observation units and ED hospital admission rates. Further studies with larger sample sizes should be performed to further evaluate the impact of ED observation units on ED hospital admission rates.