Admission to hospital in the UK at a weekend does not influence the prognosis of adults with community-acquired pneumonia.

ABSTRACT

Outcomes for adults with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) admitted to hospital at the weekend were compared with those admitted during weekdays using data from the British Thoracic Society national CAP audits. Of 31 400 cases, 40.7% were weekend admissions; these patients were older (mean age 72 vs 71.3 years, p=0.001) and more likely to have high severity CAP (28.9% vs 27.1%, p trend 0.003) but had slightly lower adjusted 30-day inpatient mortality (aOR 0.94 95% CI 0.88 to 1.01) compared with those admitted during weekdays. More patients in the weekend group received antibiotics within 4 hours of admission (70.3% vs 68.7%, aOR 1.07 95% CI 1.01 to 1.12). We did not observe increased mortality for adults admitted at the weekend with CAP.