Summary
Many studies have investigated the presence of a ‘weekend effect’ in mortality following hospital admission, and these frequently use diagnostic codes from administrative data for information on co-morbidities for risk adjustment. However, it is possible that coding practice differs between week and weekend. This paper assess patients with a confirmed history of certain long-term health conditions and investigate how well these are recorded in subsequent week and weekend admissions.
Content
The study notes that long-term conditions are often not recorded on administrative data and the lack of recording may be worse for weekend admissions. Studies of the weekend effect that rely on administrative data might have underestimated the health burden of patients, particularly if admitted at the weekend.
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