title: Day of week of procedure and 30 day mortality for elective surgery: retrospective analysis of hospital episode statistics.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the association between mortality and the day of elective surgical procedure.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective analysis of national hospital administrative data.
  
  
  METHODS
  All acute and specialist English hospitals carrying out elective surgery over three financial years, from 2008-09 to 2010-11.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients undergoing elective surgery in English public hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Death in or out of hospital within 30 days of the procedure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 27,582 deaths within 30 days after 4,133,346 inpatient admissions for elective operating room procedures (overall crude mortality rate 6.7 per 1000). The number of weekday and weekend procedures decreased over the three years (by 4.5% and 26.8%, respectively). The adjusted odds of death were 44% and 82% higher, respectively, if the procedures were carried out on Friday (odds ratio 1.44, 95% confidence interval 1.39 to 1.50) or a weekend (1.82, 1.71 to 1.94) compared with Monday.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study suggests a higher risk of death for patients who have elective surgical procedures carried out later in the working week and at the weekend.
authors.affiliation: Dr Foster Unit at Imperial College, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College, London W6 8RP, UK. p.aylin@imperial.ac.uk
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Aylin
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alexandrescu
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Jen
authors.forename: E K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bottle
mesh_terms: D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures / Q000401:mortality*; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors