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The quality of internal medicine hospital care during summer holiday season
Author(s) -
Sipilä Jussi,
Kauko Tommi,
Kytö Ville,
Stormi Teija,
Rautava Päivi
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/jep.12130
Subject(s) - medicine , confidence interval , relative risk , demography , emergency medicine , pediatrics , sociology
Rationale, aims and objectives The J uly/ A ugust P henomenon is a period when the quality of care in hospitals is thought to decrease due to summer vacation stand‐ins and new staff. The results of studies on the veracity of this claim have been conflicting. This study investigates the situation in internal medicine. Methods Registry data of patients treated in internal medicine wards between 1 J uly 2000 and 30 N ovember 2009 were obtained and analysed. Results There were no differences in mortality during the J uly admissions compared with those in N ovember when adjusting for age, diagnosis, gender and year [for the overall data risk ratio ( RR ) = 1.10, 95% confidence interval ( CI ) 1.00–1.23, P = 0.06; for the university hospitals RR = 1.10, 95% CI 0.91–1.33, P = 0.34; for the non‐university hospitals RR = 1.10, 95% CI 0.97–1.26, P = 0.13]. The duration of admission (overall mean 4.5, standard deviation 6.0) was equal between J uly and N ovember when adjusted for age, diagnosis, gender and year in all groups (overall data: RR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.99–1.02, P = 0.83; university hospitals RR = 1.02, 95% CI 0.99–1.04, P = 0.13; non‐university hospitals RR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.98–1.01, P = 0.67).Conclusions The quality of care in F innish internal medicine wards in J uly seems to equal N ovember. Our results do not support the existence of a J uly P henomenon in F inland.