Aaron Carroll analyzed hospital records for 23,000 babies diagnosed with “failure to thrive” and found that those admitted on weekends stayed longer and at greater expense. Drum summarizes:
If your baby is admitted on a weekday, the average length of stay is five days and the average cost is about $9,000. But if your baby is admitted on a weekend, the average length of stay is seven days and the average cost is about $13,000. For all practical purposes, it looks like the babies just sit around over the weekend and then start getting treated on Monday.
Carroll saw it coming:
What irked me [as a pediatrician] was that so many [babies] seemed to be admitted over the weekend. Almost all of the tests, and all of the consults, that we’d order would be unavailable then. So it seemed like these babies would just sit. They’d have longer admissions, and they’d cause me a lot of effort and paperwork. At least, this was my theory. … I’ve often kidded on the square that most of my research is spite based. In other words, something pisses me off, and I go on a mission to prove it’s wrong.
Previous Dish on weekend hospital care here.
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