Night or Weekend Admission and Outcomes

The hospitalist movement and increasingly stringent resident work hour restrictions have led to the utilization of shift work in many hospitals.1 Use of nocturnist and night float systems, while often necessary, results in increased patient hand‐offs. Research suggests that hand‐offs in the inpatient setting can adversely affect patient outcomes as lack of continuity may increase the possibility of medical error.2, 3 In 2001, Bell et al.4 found that mortality was higher among patients admitted on weekends as compared to weekdays. Uneven staffing, lack of supervision, and fragmented care were cited as potential contributing factors.4 Similarly, Peberdy et al.5 in 2008 revealed that patients were less likely to survive a cardiac arrest if it occurred at night or on weekends, again attributed in part to fragmented patient care and understaffing.

The results of these studies raise concerns as to whether increased reliance on shift work and resulting handoffs compromises patient care.6, 7 The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential association between night admission and hospitalization‐relevant outcomes (length of stay [LOS], hospital charges, intensive care unit [ICU] transfer during hospitalization, repeat emergency department [ED] visit within 30 days of discharge, readmission within 30 days of discharge, and poor outcome [transfer to the ICU, cardiac arrest, or death] within the first 24 hours of admission) at an institution that exclusively uses nocturnists (night‐shift based hospitalists) and a resident night float system for patients admitted at night to the general medicine service. A secondary aim was to determine the potential association between weekend admission and hospitalization‐relevant outcomes.

Methods

Results

We reviewed 857 records. After excluding 33 records lacking administrative data regarding gender, race and ethnicity, and other demographic variables, there were 824 medical records available for analysis. We reviewed a similar number of records from each time period: 274 from January 2008, 265 from April 2008, and 285 from July 2008. A total of 345 (42%) patients were admitted during the day, and 479 (58%) at night; 641 (78%) were admitted on weekdays, and 183 (22%) on weekends. The 33 excluded charts were similar to the included charts for both time of admission and outcomes. Results for parametric testing and nonparametric testing, as well as for log‐transformation and non‐log‐transformation of the continuous outcomes were similar in both magnitude and statistical significance, so we present the parametric and nonlog‐transformed results below for ease of interpretation.

Interrater reliability among the 3 reviewers was very high. There were no disagreements among the 20 multiple reviews for either poor outcomes within 24 hours of admission or admitting service; the interclass correlation coefficients for 30 day repeat ED visit and 30 day readmission were 0.97 and 0.87, respectively.

Patients admitted at night or on the weekend were similar to patients admitted during the day and week across age, gender, insurance class, MDC, and Charlson Comorbidity Index (Table 1). For unadjusted outcomes, patients admitted at night has a similar LOS, hospital charges, 30 day repeat ED visits, 30 day readmissions, and poor outcome within 24 hours of admission as those patients admitted during the day. They had a potentially lower chance of any ICU transfer during hospitalization though this did not reach statistical significance at P < 0.05 (night admission 6%, day admission 3%, P = 0.06) (Table 2).

Patients admitted to the hospital during the weekend were similar to patients admitted during the week for unadjusted LOS, 30 day repeat ED visit or readmission rate, and poor outcomes within 24 hours of admission as those admitted during the week; however, they had lower hospital charges (weekend admission $22,700, weekday admission $27,200; P = 0.02), and a lower chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization (weekend admission 1%, weekday admission 5%; P = 0.02) (Table 2).

In the multivariable linear and logistic regression models (Tables 3 and 4), we assessed the independent association between night admission or weekend admission and each hospitalization‐relevant outcome except for poor outcome within 24 hours of admission (poor outcome within 24 hours of admission was not modeled to avoid the risk of overfitting because there were only 13 total events). After adjustment for age, gender, race and ethnicity, admitting service (hospitalist or teaching), Medicaid or self‐pay insurance, MDC, and Charlson Comorbidity Index, there was no statistically significant association between night admission and worse outcomes for LOS, hospital charges, 30 day repeat ED visit, or 30 day readmission. Night admission was associated with a decreased chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization, but the difference was not statistically significant (odds ratio, 0.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.26‐1.11, P = 0.09). Weekend admission was not associated with worse outcomes for LOS or 30 day repeat ED visit or readmission; however, weekend admission was associated with a decrease in overall charges ($4400; 95% CI, $8300 to $600) and a decreased chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization (odds ratio, 0.20; 95% CI, 0.050.88).

Our multivariate models explained very little of the variance in patient outcomes. For LOS and hospital charges, adjusted R² values were 0.06 and 0.05, respectively. For ICU transfer during hospitalization, 30 day repeat ED visit, and 30 day readmission, the areas under the receiver operator curves were 0.75, 0.51, and 0.61 respectively.

To assess the robustness of our conclusions regarding night admission, we redefined night to include only patients admitted between the hours of 8 pm and 5:59 am. This did not change our conclusions. We also tested for interaction between night admission and weekend admission for all outcomes to assess whether night admissions on the weekend were in fact at increased risk of worse outcomes; we found no evidence of interaction (P > 0.3 for the interaction terms in each model).

Discussion

Among patients admitted to the medicine services at our academic medical center, night or weekend admission was not associated with worse hospitalization‐relevant outcomes. In some cases, night or weekend admission was associated with better outcomes, particularly in terms of ICU transfer during hospitalization and hospital charges. Prior research indicates worse outcomes during off‐hours,5 but we did not replicate this finding in our study.

The finding that admission at night was not associated with worse outcomes, particularly proximal outcomes such as LOS or ICU transfer during hospitalization, was surprising, though reassuring in view of the fact that more than half of our patients are admitted at night. We believe a few factors may be responsible. First, our general medicine service is staffed during the night (7 pm to 7 am) by in‐house nocturnists and night float residents. Second, our staffing ratio, while lower at night than during the day, remains the same on weekends and may be higher than in other settings. In continuously well‐staffed settings such as the ED12 and ICU,13 night and weekend admissions are only inconsistently associated with worse outcomes, which may be the same phenomena we observed in the current study. Third, the hospital used as the site of this study has received Nursing Magnet recognition and numerous quality awards such as the National Research Corporation's Consumer Choice Award and recognition as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence by HealthGrades. Fourth, our integrated electronic medical record, computerized physician order entry system, and automatically generated sign out serve as complements to the morning hand off. Fifth, hospitalists and teaching teams rotate on a weekly, biweekly, or every 4 week basis, which may protect against discontinuity associated with the weekend. We believe that all of these factors may facilitate alert, comprehensive care during the night and weekend as well as safe and efficient transfer of patients from the night to the day providers.

We were also surprised by the association between weekend admission and lower charges and a lower chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization. We believe many of the same factors noted above may have played a role in these findings. In terms of hospital charges, it is possible that some workups were completed outside of the hospital rather than during the hospitalization, and that some tests were not ordered at all due to unavailability on weekends. The decreased chance of ICU transfer is unexplained. We hypothesize that there may have been a more conservative admission strategy within the ED, such that patients with high baseline severity were admitted directly to the ICU on the weekend rather than being admitted first to the general medicine floor. This hypothesis requires further study.

Our study had important limitations. It was a retrospective study from a single academic hospital. The sample size lacked sufficient power to detect differences in the low frequency of certain outcomes such as poor outcomes within 24 hours of admission (2% vs. 1%), and also for more frequent outcomes such as 30 day readmission; it is possible that with a larger sample there would have been statistically significant differences. Further, we recognize that the Charlson Comorbidity Index, which was developed to predict 1‐year mortality for medicine service patients, does not adjust for severity of illness at presentation, particularly for outcomes such as readmission. If patients admitted at night and during the weekend were less acutely ill despite having similar comorbidities and MDCs at admission, true associations between time of admission and worse outcomes could have been masked. Furthermore, the multivariable modeling explained very little of the variance in patient outcomes such that significant unmeasured confounding may still be present, and consequently our results cannot be interpreted in a causal way. Data was collected from electronic records, so it is possible that some adverse events were not recorded. However, it seems unlikely that major events such as death and transfer to an ICU would have been missed.

Several aspects of the study strengthen our confidence in the findings, including a large sample size, relevance of the outcomes, the adjustment for confounders, and an assessment for robustness of the conclusions based on restricting the definition of night and also testing for interaction between night and weekend admission. Our patient demographics and insurance mix resemble that of other academic hospitals,10 and perhaps our results may be generalizable to these settings, if not to non‐urban or community hospitals. Furthermore, the Charlson Comorbidity Index was associated with all 5 of the modeled outcomes we chose for our study, reaffirming their utility in assessing the quality of hospital care. Future directions for investigation may include examining the association of night admission with hospitalization‐relevant outcomes in nonacademic, nonurban settings, and examining whether the lack of association between night and weekend admission and worse outcomes persists with adjustment for initial severity of illness.

In summary, at a large, well‐staffed urban academic hospital, day or time of admission were not associated with worse hospitalization‐relevant outcomes. The use of nocturnists and night float teams for night admissions and continuity across weekends appears to be a safe approach to handling the increased volume of patients admitted at night, and a viable alternative to overnight call in the era of work hour restrictions.

The hospitalist movement and increasingly stringent resident work hour restrictions have led to the utilization of shift work in many hospitals.1 Use of nocturnist and night float systems, while often necessary, results in increased patient hand‐offs. Research suggests that hand‐offs in the inpatient setting can adversely affect patient outcomes as lack of continuity may increase the possibility of medical error.2, 3 In 2001, Bell et al.4 found that mortality was higher among patients admitted on weekends as compared to weekdays. Uneven staffing, lack of supervision, and fragmented care were cited as potential contributing factors.4 Similarly, Peberdy et al.5 in 2008 revealed that patients were less likely to survive a cardiac arrest if it occurred at night or on weekends, again attributed in part to fragmented patient care and understaffing.

The results of these studies raise concerns as to whether increased reliance on shift work and resulting handoffs compromises patient care.6, 7 The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential association between night admission and hospitalization‐relevant outcomes (length of stay [LOS], hospital charges, intensive care unit [ICU] transfer during hospitalization, repeat emergency department [ED] visit within 30 days of discharge, readmission within 30 days of discharge, and poor outcome [transfer to the ICU, cardiac arrest, or death] within the first 24 hours of admission) at an institution that exclusively uses nocturnists (night‐shift based hospitalists) and a resident night float system for patients admitted at night to the general medicine service. A secondary aim was to determine the potential association between weekend admission and hospitalization‐relevant outcomes.

Methods

Results

We reviewed 857 records. After excluding 33 records lacking administrative data regarding gender, race and ethnicity, and other demographic variables, there were 824 medical records available for analysis. We reviewed a similar number of records from each time period: 274 from January 2008, 265 from April 2008, and 285 from July 2008. A total of 345 (42%) patients were admitted during the day, and 479 (58%) at night; 641 (78%) were admitted on weekdays, and 183 (22%) on weekends. The 33 excluded charts were similar to the included charts for both time of admission and outcomes. Results for parametric testing and nonparametric testing, as well as for log‐transformation and non‐log‐transformation of the continuous outcomes were similar in both magnitude and statistical significance, so we present the parametric and nonlog‐transformed results below for ease of interpretation.

Interrater reliability among the 3 reviewers was very high. There were no disagreements among the 20 multiple reviews for either poor outcomes within 24 hours of admission or admitting service; the interclass correlation coefficients for 30 day repeat ED visit and 30 day readmission were 0.97 and 0.87, respectively.

Patients admitted at night or on the weekend were similar to patients admitted during the day and week across age, gender, insurance class, MDC, and Charlson Comorbidity Index (Table 1). For unadjusted outcomes, patients admitted at night has a similar LOS, hospital charges, 30 day repeat ED visits, 30 day readmissions, and poor outcome within 24 hours of admission as those patients admitted during the day. They had a potentially lower chance of any ICU transfer during hospitalization though this did not reach statistical significance at P < 0.05 (night admission 6%, day admission 3%, P = 0.06) (Table 2).

Patients admitted to the hospital during the weekend were similar to patients admitted during the week for unadjusted LOS, 30 day repeat ED visit or readmission rate, and poor outcomes within 24 hours of admission as those admitted during the week; however, they had lower hospital charges (weekend admission $22,700, weekday admission $27,200; P = 0.02), and a lower chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization (weekend admission 1%, weekday admission 5%; P = 0.02) (Table 2).

In the multivariable linear and logistic regression models (Tables 3 and 4), we assessed the independent association between night admission or weekend admission and each hospitalization‐relevant outcome except for poor outcome within 24 hours of admission (poor outcome within 24 hours of admission was not modeled to avoid the risk of overfitting because there were only 13 total events). After adjustment for age, gender, race and ethnicity, admitting service (hospitalist or teaching), Medicaid or self‐pay insurance, MDC, and Charlson Comorbidity Index, there was no statistically significant association between night admission and worse outcomes for LOS, hospital charges, 30 day repeat ED visit, or 30 day readmission. Night admission was associated with a decreased chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization, but the difference was not statistically significant (odds ratio, 0.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.26‐1.11, P = 0.09). Weekend admission was not associated with worse outcomes for LOS or 30 day repeat ED visit or readmission; however, weekend admission was associated with a decrease in overall charges ($4400; 95% CI, $8300 to $600) and a decreased chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization (odds ratio, 0.20; 95% CI, 0.050.88).

Our multivariate models explained very little of the variance in patient outcomes. For LOS and hospital charges, adjusted R² values were 0.06 and 0.05, respectively. For ICU transfer during hospitalization, 30 day repeat ED visit, and 30 day readmission, the areas under the receiver operator curves were 0.75, 0.51, and 0.61 respectively.

To assess the robustness of our conclusions regarding night admission, we redefined night to include only patients admitted between the hours of 8 pm and 5:59 am. This did not change our conclusions. We also tested for interaction between night admission and weekend admission for all outcomes to assess whether night admissions on the weekend were in fact at increased risk of worse outcomes; we found no evidence of interaction (P > 0.3 for the interaction terms in each model).

Discussion

Among patients admitted to the medicine services at our academic medical center, night or weekend admission was not associated with worse hospitalization‐relevant outcomes. In some cases, night or weekend admission was associated with better outcomes, particularly in terms of ICU transfer during hospitalization and hospital charges. Prior research indicates worse outcomes during off‐hours,5 but we did not replicate this finding in our study.

The finding that admission at night was not associated with worse outcomes, particularly proximal outcomes such as LOS or ICU transfer during hospitalization, was surprising, though reassuring in view of the fact that more than half of our patients are admitted at night. We believe a few factors may be responsible. First, our general medicine service is staffed during the night (7 pm to 7 am) by in‐house nocturnists and night float residents. Second, our staffing ratio, while lower at night than during the day, remains the same on weekends and may be higher than in other settings. In continuously well‐staffed settings such as the ED12 and ICU,13 night and weekend admissions are only inconsistently associated with worse outcomes, which may be the same phenomena we observed in the current study. Third, the hospital used as the site of this study has received Nursing Magnet recognition and numerous quality awards such as the National Research Corporation's Consumer Choice Award and recognition as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence by HealthGrades. Fourth, our integrated electronic medical record, computerized physician order entry system, and automatically generated sign out serve as complements to the morning hand off. Fifth, hospitalists and teaching teams rotate on a weekly, biweekly, or every 4 week basis, which may protect against discontinuity associated with the weekend. We believe that all of these factors may facilitate alert, comprehensive care during the night and weekend as well as safe and efficient transfer of patients from the night to the day providers.

We were also surprised by the association between weekend admission and lower charges and a lower chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization. We believe many of the same factors noted above may have played a role in these findings. In terms of hospital charges, it is possible that some workups were completed outside of the hospital rather than during the hospitalization, and that some tests were not ordered at all due to unavailability on weekends. The decreased chance of ICU transfer is unexplained. We hypothesize that there may have been a more conservative admission strategy within the ED, such that patients with high baseline severity were admitted directly to the ICU on the weekend rather than being admitted first to the general medicine floor. This hypothesis requires further study.

Our study had important limitations. It was a retrospective study from a single academic hospital. The sample size lacked sufficient power to detect differences in the low frequency of certain outcomes such as poor outcomes within 24 hours of admission (2% vs. 1%), and also for more frequent outcomes such as 30 day readmission; it is possible that with a larger sample there would have been statistically significant differences. Further, we recognize that the Charlson Comorbidity Index, which was developed to predict 1‐year mortality for medicine service patients, does not adjust for severity of illness at presentation, particularly for outcomes such as readmission. If patients admitted at night and during the weekend were less acutely ill despite having similar comorbidities and MDCs at admission, true associations between time of admission and worse outcomes could have been masked. Furthermore, the multivariable modeling explained very little of the variance in patient outcomes such that significant unmeasured confounding may still be present, and consequently our results cannot be interpreted in a causal way. Data was collected from electronic records, so it is possible that some adverse events were not recorded. However, it seems unlikely that major events such as death and transfer to an ICU would have been missed.

Several aspects of the study strengthen our confidence in the findings, including a large sample size, relevance of the outcomes, the adjustment for confounders, and an assessment for robustness of the conclusions based on restricting the definition of night and also testing for interaction between night and weekend admission. Our patient demographics and insurance mix resemble that of other academic hospitals,10 and perhaps our results may be generalizable to these settings, if not to non‐urban or community hospitals. Furthermore, the Charlson Comorbidity Index was associated with all 5 of the modeled outcomes we chose for our study, reaffirming their utility in assessing the quality of hospital care. Future directions for investigation may include examining the association of night admission with hospitalization‐relevant outcomes in nonacademic, nonurban settings, and examining whether the lack of association between night and weekend admission and worse outcomes persists with adjustment for initial severity of illness.

In summary, at a large, well‐staffed urban academic hospital, day or time of admission were not associated with worse hospitalization‐relevant outcomes. The use of nocturnists and night float teams for night admissions and continuity across weekends appears to be a safe approach to handling the increased volume of patients admitted at night, and a viable alternative to overnight call in the era of work hour restrictions.

The hospitalist movement and increasingly stringent resident work hour restrictions have led to the utilization of shift work in many hospitals.1 Use of nocturnist and night float systems, while often necessary, results in increased patient hand‐offs. Research suggests that hand‐offs in the inpatient setting can adversely affect patient outcomes as lack of continuity may increase the possibility of medical error.2, 3 In 2001, Bell et al.4 found that mortality was higher among patients admitted on weekends as compared to weekdays. Uneven staffing, lack of supervision, and fragmented care were cited as potential contributing factors.4 Similarly, Peberdy et al.5 in 2008 revealed that patients were less likely to survive a cardiac arrest if it occurred at night or on weekends, again attributed in part to fragmented patient care and understaffing.

The results of these studies raise concerns as to whether increased reliance on shift work and resulting handoffs compromises patient care.6, 7 The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential association between night admission and hospitalization‐relevant outcomes (length of stay [LOS], hospital charges, intensive care unit [ICU] transfer during hospitalization, repeat emergency department [ED] visit within 30 days of discharge, readmission within 30 days of discharge, and poor outcome [transfer to the ICU, cardiac arrest, or death] within the first 24 hours of admission) at an institution that exclusively uses nocturnists (night‐shift based hospitalists) and a resident night float system for patients admitted at night to the general medicine service. A secondary aim was to determine the potential association between weekend admission and hospitalization‐relevant outcomes.

Methods

Results

We reviewed 857 records. After excluding 33 records lacking administrative data regarding gender, race and ethnicity, and other demographic variables, there were 824 medical records available for analysis. We reviewed a similar number of records from each time period: 274 from January 2008, 265 from April 2008, and 285 from July 2008. A total of 345 (42%) patients were admitted during the day, and 479 (58%) at night; 641 (78%) were admitted on weekdays, and 183 (22%) on weekends. The 33 excluded charts were similar to the included charts for both time of admission and outcomes. Results for parametric testing and nonparametric testing, as well as for log‐transformation and non‐log‐transformation of the continuous outcomes were similar in both magnitude and statistical significance, so we present the parametric and nonlog‐transformed results below for ease of interpretation.

Interrater reliability among the 3 reviewers was very high. There were no disagreements among the 20 multiple reviews for either poor outcomes within 24 hours of admission or admitting service; the interclass correlation coefficients for 30 day repeat ED visit and 30 day readmission were 0.97 and 0.87, respectively.

Patients admitted at night or on the weekend were similar to patients admitted during the day and week across age, gender, insurance class, MDC, and Charlson Comorbidity Index (Table 1). For unadjusted outcomes, patients admitted at night has a similar LOS, hospital charges, 30 day repeat ED visits, 30 day readmissions, and poor outcome within 24 hours of admission as those patients admitted during the day. They had a potentially lower chance of any ICU transfer during hospitalization though this did not reach statistical significance at P < 0.05 (night admission 6%, day admission 3%, P = 0.06) (Table 2).

Patients admitted to the hospital during the weekend were similar to patients admitted during the week for unadjusted LOS, 30 day repeat ED visit or readmission rate, and poor outcomes within 24 hours of admission as those admitted during the week; however, they had lower hospital charges (weekend admission $22,700, weekday admission $27,200; P = 0.02), and a lower chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization (weekend admission 1%, weekday admission 5%; P = 0.02) (Table 2).

In the multivariable linear and logistic regression models (Tables 3 and 4), we assessed the independent association between night admission or weekend admission and each hospitalization‐relevant outcome except for poor outcome within 24 hours of admission (poor outcome within 24 hours of admission was not modeled to avoid the risk of overfitting because there were only 13 total events). After adjustment for age, gender, race and ethnicity, admitting service (hospitalist or teaching), Medicaid or self‐pay insurance, MDC, and Charlson Comorbidity Index, there was no statistically significant association between night admission and worse outcomes for LOS, hospital charges, 30 day repeat ED visit, or 30 day readmission. Night admission was associated with a decreased chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization, but the difference was not statistically significant (odds ratio, 0.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.26‐1.11, P = 0.09). Weekend admission was not associated with worse outcomes for LOS or 30 day repeat ED visit or readmission; however, weekend admission was associated with a decrease in overall charges ($4400; 95% CI, $8300 to $600) and a decreased chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization (odds ratio, 0.20; 95% CI, 0.050.88).

Our multivariate models explained very little of the variance in patient outcomes. For LOS and hospital charges, adjusted R² values were 0.06 and 0.05, respectively. For ICU transfer during hospitalization, 30 day repeat ED visit, and 30 day readmission, the areas under the receiver operator curves were 0.75, 0.51, and 0.61 respectively.

To assess the robustness of our conclusions regarding night admission, we redefined night to include only patients admitted between the hours of 8 pm and 5:59 am. This did not change our conclusions. We also tested for interaction between night admission and weekend admission for all outcomes to assess whether night admissions on the weekend were in fact at increased risk of worse outcomes; we found no evidence of interaction (P > 0.3 for the interaction terms in each model).

Discussion

Among patients admitted to the medicine services at our academic medical center, night or weekend admission was not associated with worse hospitalization‐relevant outcomes. In some cases, night or weekend admission was associated with better outcomes, particularly in terms of ICU transfer during hospitalization and hospital charges. Prior research indicates worse outcomes during off‐hours,5 but we did not replicate this finding in our study.

The finding that admission at night was not associated with worse outcomes, particularly proximal outcomes such as LOS or ICU transfer during hospitalization, was surprising, though reassuring in view of the fact that more than half of our patients are admitted at night. We believe a few factors may be responsible. First, our general medicine service is staffed during the night (7 pm to 7 am) by in‐house nocturnists and night float residents. Second, our staffing ratio, while lower at night than during the day, remains the same on weekends and may be higher than in other settings. In continuously well‐staffed settings such as the ED12 and ICU,13 night and weekend admissions are only inconsistently associated with worse outcomes, which may be the same phenomena we observed in the current study. Third, the hospital used as the site of this study has received Nursing Magnet recognition and numerous quality awards such as the National Research Corporation's Consumer Choice Award and recognition as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence by HealthGrades. Fourth, our integrated electronic medical record, computerized physician order entry system, and automatically generated sign out serve as complements to the morning hand off. Fifth, hospitalists and teaching teams rotate on a weekly, biweekly, or every 4 week basis, which may protect against discontinuity associated with the weekend. We believe that all of these factors may facilitate alert, comprehensive care during the night and weekend as well as safe and efficient transfer of patients from the night to the day providers.

We were also surprised by the association between weekend admission and lower charges and a lower chance of ICU transfer during hospitalization. We believe many of the same factors noted above may have played a role in these findings. In terms of hospital charges, it is possible that some workups were completed outside of the hospital rather than during the hospitalization, and that some tests were not ordered at all due to unavailability on weekends. The decreased chance of ICU transfer is unexplained. We hypothesize that there may have been a more conservative admission strategy within the ED, such that patients with high baseline severity were admitted directly to the ICU on the weekend rather than being admitted first to the general medicine floor. This hypothesis requires further study.

Our study had important limitations. It was a retrospective study from a single academic hospital. The sample size lacked sufficient power to detect differences in the low frequency of certain outcomes such as poor outcomes within 24 hours of admission (2% vs. 1%), and also for more frequent outcomes such as 30 day readmission; it is possible that with a larger sample there would have been statistically significant differences. Further, we recognize that the Charlson Comorbidity Index, which was developed to predict 1‐year mortality for medicine service patients, does not adjust for severity of illness at presentation, particularly for outcomes such as readmission. If patients admitted at night and during the weekend were less acutely ill despite having similar comorbidities and MDCs at admission, true associations between time of admission and worse outcomes could have been masked. Furthermore, the multivariable modeling explained very little of the variance in patient outcomes such that significant unmeasured confounding may still be present, and consequently our results cannot be interpreted in a causal way. Data was collected from electronic records, so it is possible that some adverse events were not recorded. However, it seems unlikely that major events such as death and transfer to an ICU would have been missed.

Several aspects of the study strengthen our confidence in the findings, including a large sample size, relevance of the outcomes, the adjustment for confounders, and an assessment for robustness of the conclusions based on restricting the definition of night and also testing for interaction between night and weekend admission. Our patient demographics and insurance mix resemble that of other academic hospitals,10 and perhaps our results may be generalizable to these settings, if not to non‐urban or community hospitals. Furthermore, the Charlson Comorbidity Index was associated with all 5 of the modeled outcomes we chose for our study, reaffirming their utility in assessing the quality of hospital care. Future directions for investigation may include examining the association of night admission with hospitalization‐relevant outcomes in nonacademic, nonurban settings, and examining whether the lack of association between night and weekend admission and worse outcomes persists with adjustment for initial severity of illness.

In summary, at a large, well‐staffed urban academic hospital, day or time of admission were not associated with worse hospitalization‐relevant outcomes. The use of nocturnists and night float teams for night admissions and continuity across weekends appears to be a safe approach to handling the increased volume of patients admitted at night, and a viable alternative to overnight call in the era of work hour restrictions.