Sicker patients account for the weekend mortality effect among adult emergency admissions to a large hospital trust

Objective To determine whether the higher weekend admission mortality risk is attributable to increased severity of illness. Design Retrospective analysis of 4 years weekend and weekday adult emergency admissions to a university teaching hospital in England. Outcome measures 30-day postadmission weekend:weekday mortality ratios adjusted for severity of illness (baseline National Early Warning Score (NEWS)), routes of admission to hospital, transfer to the intensive care unit (ICU) and demographics. Results Despite similar emergency department daily attendance rates, fewer patients were admitted on weekends (mean admission rate 91/day vs 120/day) because of fewer general practitioner referrals. Weekend admissions were sicker than weekday (mean NEWS 1.8 vs 1.7, p=0.008), more likely to undergo transfer to ICU within 24 hours (4.2% vs 3.0%), spent longer in hospital (median 3 days vs 2 days) and less likely to experience same-day discharge (17.2% vs 21.9%) (all p values