In a Medical Intensive Care Unit

© 2007 Elsevier. All rights reserved. Usually, fewer people work in hospitals on weekends than on weekdays. Such shortfalls in hospital staffing levels lead to less effective hospital functioning, and undoubtedly a lower quality of patient care on weekends. For instance, earlier studies have shown that neonatal mortality is higher for babies born on weekends than among those born on weekdays [1–3]. A large study involving all acute care hospitals in Ontario, Canada, over a 10-year period showed that patients with serious medical conditions have a significantly increased mortality rate if they are admitted Received: December 4, 2006 Accepted: February 14, 2007 Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr Jhi-Jhu Hwang, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, 100 Tzyou 1st Road, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan. E-mail: [email protected] ADMISSION TIME AND OUTCOMES OF PATIENTS IN A MEDICAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT