Analyzing the effect of weekend and July admission on patient outcomes following non-pyogenic intracranial venous thrombosis

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of weekend admission and July admission on the short-term outcome of patients following a non-pyogenic cerebral venous thrombosis. Methods: Data from the National Inpatient Sample were gathered from the years 2013–2016. Patients who had a non-pyogenic cerebral venous thrombosis were identified. Admissions on the weekend were compared to those on the weekdays, as well as July admissions compared to other months. Outcome measures included inpatient mortality, length of stay, APR-DRG severity and mortality risk scores, non-routine discharges, complications, and total charges. Results: We identified 1116 patients who were admitted with a non-pyogenic cerebral venous thrombosis between 2013 and 2016. Of those, 243 (21.8%) were admitted on a weekend day (Saturday/Sunday), and 873 (78.2%) were admitted on a weekday. Of the 963 patients admitted to a teaching hospital, 81 (8.4%) were admitted in July and 882 (91.6%) were admitted in other months. When analyzing the weekend effect, there were significant differences observed in patient mortality (7.4% vs 3.9%, P = 0.022, OR = 1.967), adjusted log length of stay (0.874 ± 0.567 vs 0.795 ± 0.494, P = 0.033), and the rate of sepsis (6.6% vs 3.4%, P = 0.029, OR = 1.978). The means of all other measures of outcome were elevated when comparing the weekend vs weekday. When analyzing the July effect, there were no significant differences observed for any outcome measures. Conclusions: Patients admitted on the weekend with a nonpyogenic intracranial venous thrombosis have significantly worse outcomes compared to those admitted on a weekday. There were no significant differences found between patients admitted in the month of July compared to other months.

Keywords

• non-pyogenic cerebral venous thrombosis
• Weekend effect
• July effect