The American journal of medicine
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To develop and validate a prognostic index for 1-year mortality of hospitalized older adults using standard administrative data readily available after discharge. ⋯ Reasonable prognostic information for 1-year mortality in older patients discharged from general medicine services can be derived from administrative data to identify high-risk groups of persons.
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Recent studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that patient safety may be compromised on weekends. Our objective was to determine whether rates of complications in hospitals are higher on weekends than on weekdays. ⋯ Rates of complications are marginally higher on weekends than on weekdays for some surgical and newborn complications, but more significantly for obstetric trauma and for surgical complications involving patients undergoing vascular procedures. Hospitals should work toward increasing the robustness of safeguards on weekends.