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Hospitals are dangerous places
Author(s) -
Barnett Adrian G,
Graves Nicholas,
Cooper Ben S,
Batra Rahul,
Edgeworth Jonathan D
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2008.tb02239.x
Subject(s) - odds , intensive care unit , odds ratio , emergency medicine , medicine , medical emergency , intensive care medicine , logistic regression
Objective: To estimate the effect of day of the week on the odds of being discharged alive from an intensive care unit (ICU). Design: A longitudinal analysis of risk of discharge by day of the week. Setting and patients: 4569 patients admitted to the ICU of St Thomas’ Hospital, London, from 2002 to 2006. Results: The odds of being discharged alive were lowest on the weekend and literally climbed during the week. Conclusion: Our results show a frightening pattern of discharge from an ICU ward, most likely caused by a complex web of specialist availability and patient demand.