Components of hospital perioperative infrastructure can overcome the weekend effect in urgent general surgery procedures.
The weekend effect is a well-documented phenomenon where patients admitted over the weekend have inferior outcomes compared to those admitted on a weekday. This retrospective study utilized the AHRQ Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project database and found that specific factors, such as full adoption of electronic health records, home health programs, and increased nurse-to-bed ratios, were associated with overcoming the weekend effect in hospitals.