Being admitted to the hospital on a weekend is potentially dangerous, as studies have shown that preventable complications and mortality are increased across a range of common diagnoses for weekend admissions compared with weekdays. One exception appears to be trauma, as a prior study found equal outcomes in patients with traumatic injuries regardless of the day of admission, a finding ascribed to the protocolized and closely supervised nature of trauma care. However, this study of older adults admitted with traumatic brain injury did find increased mortality for those patients admitted on the weekend, despite the fact that patients admitted on the weekend were less severely injured. A limitation of this study is that the authors were not able to analyze outcomes for patients cared for at specialized trauma centers. Nevertheless, the study adds to the considerable body of research documenting the dangers of weekend hospital admission.

This ethnographic study explored incident reporting systems and their management practices, and found them to be intimately tied to local accountability processes.

The AHRQ Patient Safety Indicator accurately identified accidental injuries due to medical care, but many cases identified were clinically inconsequential.

The investigators found that the clinicians surveyed displayed insufficient knowledge of strategies for managing tracheostomy-related emergencies.

The investigators used existing data and guidelines to develop this standard operating procedure for the diagnosis and treatment of ventilator-associated pneumonia.