Weekend and night outcomes in a statewide trauma system.
Patients admitted to the hospital on a weekend are at risk for increased complications and even increased mortality for certain conditions, such as acute myocardial infarctions. This analysis of trauma admissions in Pennsylvania did not find any difference in clinical outcomes between weekend and weekday admissions over a 5-year time frame. The authors speculate that the protocolized and closely supervised nature of trauma care may explain this finding; this explanation has also been advanced to explain the apparent lack of a July effect in trauma patients.