Summary
This publication of the Seven-day Services indicators relates to activity in the period April 2015 to March 2016.
In July 2015 the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, delivered a speech 'Making healthcare more human-centred and not system-centred' (link provided in Related Links). In this speech, he outlined his commitment to seven-day care and highlighted variation in outcomes associated with weekend hospitalisation.
The experimental statistics presented in this report are being published to provide a starting point for discussions on how we can effectively measure both improvement and variation in care provision across the week. This report includes indicators on the following topics:
• Mortality within 30 days of admission by week-part of admission to hospital
• Emergency readmissions within seven days of discharge from hospital by day of discharge
• Length of stay following an emergency admission to hospital by day of admission
If variation exists across the week for a particular hospital trust, it should be examined in more detail to understand the causes. The indicators require careful interpretation and should be used in conjunction with other indicators and information from other sources that together form a holistic view of trust outcomes.
Users of these experimental statistics were invited to comment on the methodology used to calculate these indicators. The findings from this user feedback survey can be found in the 'Resources' section of this page.
Key Facts
• Patients who are admitted at the weekend have an increased likelihood of mortality within 30 days of admission compared to those who are admitted midweek.
• Patients who are discharged on Friday, Saturday and Sunday have an increased likelihood of an emergency readmission within seven days of discharge compared to those who are discharged on a Wednesday.
• Patients who are admitted in an emergency stay slightly longer in hospital if they are admitted between Friday and Sunday inclusive.
There are many possible explanations for this variation including differences in the case-mix of patients (over and above that accounted for in the analysis), patient behaviour and provision of services both in and outside of the hospital (including social care), but this analysis is unable to determine the causes of the observed variation.
Last edited: 9 December 2021 9:24 am