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Invited Commentary
September 2015

Weekday or Weekend Discharge—Does It Make a Difference?

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles
JAMA Surg. 2015;150(9):856-857. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2015.1092

Aiming to improve care quality and avoid financial penalties imposed by Medicare, hospitals are investing considerable resources in efforts to reduce hospital readmissions. While overall readmission rates have seen modest declines in recent years, hospital initiatives to reduce readmissions have been met with varying levels of success.1 Efforts to reduce readmissions have typically focused on improving care coordination and increasing the resources available to patients after discharge. Therefore, it stands to reason that when hospital resources are limited, such as on weekend days, discharge planning may suffer and hospital readmissions may rise.

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