Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
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Outcomes for patients hospitalized on weekends are often worse for adults-the so-called "weekend effect." Less is known about the weekend effect for children. We examined 55,383 hospitalizations at a tertiary care children's hospital. We used logistic regression to examine the associations of weekend admission and weekend discharge with unplanned 30-day readmission. ⋯ Children admitted on the weekend had significantly higher odds of unplanned readmission compared to children admitted on weekdays (adjusted odds ratio = 1.09 [95% confidence interval: 1.004-1.18]). In contrast, being discharged on the weekend was not associated with readmission. In conclusion, children admitted on the weekend have higher rates of 30-day unplanned readmission than children admitted during the week, suggesting care differences on the weekend related to initial clinical management rather than discharge planning.
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Comparison of mental-status scales for predicting mortality on the general wards.
Altered mental status is a significant predictor of mortality in inpatients. Several scales exist to characterize mental status, including the AVPU (Alert, responds to Voice, responds to Pain, Unresponsive) scale, which is used in many early-warning scores in the general-ward setting. The use of the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS) is not well established in this population. ⋯ In ward patients, both GCS and RASS were significantly more accurate predictors of mortality than AVPU. In addition, combining GCS and RASS was more accurate than any scale alone. Routine tracking of GCS and/or RASS on general wards may improve the accuracy of detecting clinical deterioration.
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Delirium is common, morbid, and costly, yet is greatly under-recognized among hospitalized older adults. ⋯ We identified a single item with >80% and pair of items with >90% sensitivity for delirium. If validated prospectively, these items will serve as an initial innovative screening step for delirium identification in hospitalized older adults.
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Editorial Comment
Ultrabrief delirium assessments--are they ready for primetime?