Hospital factors can overcome 'weekend effect'

(HealthDay)—More nurses and electronic medical records can help hospitals overcome the "weekend effect" (WE) associated with urgent general surgery procedures performed on weekends, according to a study published in the October issue of the Annals of Surgery.

Anai N. Kothari, M.D., from the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., and colleagues identified emergent/urgent surgeries from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Database (Florida; 2007 to 2011) and linked the data to the American Hospital Association Annual Survey Database to determine hospital level characteristics.

The researchers found that based on 126,666 patients treated at 166 hospitals, 17 hospitals overcame the WE during the study period. When controlling for patient characteristics, resources that were predictors for overcoming the WE included full adoption of electronic medical records (odds ratio [OR], 4.74), home health program (OR, 2.37), pain management program (OR, 1.48), increased registered nurse-to-bed ratio (OR, 1.44), and inpatient physical rehabilitation (OR, 1.03).

"Specific hospital resources can overcome the WE seen in urgent general surgery procedures," the authors write.