↓ Skip to main content

Do expanded seven-day NHS services improve clinical outcomes? Analysis of comparative institutional performance from the “NHS Services, Seven Days a Week” project 2013–2016

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Health Services Research, August 2017
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#6 of 8,704)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Citations

dimensions_citation
11 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
50 Mendeley
Title
Do expanded seven-day NHS services improve clinical outcomes? Analysis of comparative institutional performance from the “NHS Services, Seven Days a Week” project 2013–2016
Published in
BMC Health Services Research, August 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12913-017-2505-8
Pubmed ID
Authors

Hoong-Wei Gan, Danny Jon Nian Wong, Benjamin John Floyd Dean, Alistair Scott Hall

Abstract

The cause of adverse weekend clinical outcomes remains unknown. In 2013, the "NHS Services, Seven Days a Week" project was initiated to improve access to services across the seven-day week. Three years on, we sought to analyse the impact of such changes across the English NHS. Aggregated trust-level data on crude mortality rates, Summary Hospital-Level Mortality Indicator (SHMI), mean length of stay (LOS), A&E admission and four-hour breach rates were obtained from national Hospital Episode Statistics and A&E datasets across the English NHS, excluding mental and community health trusts. Trust annual reports were analysed to determine the presence of any seven-day service reorganisation in 2013-2014. Funnel plots were generated to compare institutional performance and a difference in differences analysis was performed to determine the impact of seven-day changes on clinical outcomes between 2013 and 2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. Data was summarised as mean (SD). Of 159 NHS trusts, 79 (49.7%) instituted seven-day changes in 2013-2014. Crude mortality rates, A&E admission rates and mean LOS remained relatively stable between 2013 and 2016, whilst A&E four-hour breach rates nearly doubled from 5.3 to 9.7%. From 2013 to 2014 to 2014-2015 and 2015-2016, there were no significant differences in the change in crude mortality (2014-2015 p = 0.8, 2015-2016 p = 0.9), SHMI (2014-2015 p = 0.5, 2015-2016 p = 0.5), mean LOS (2014-2015 p = 0.5, 2015-2016 p = 0.4), A&E admission (2014-2015 p = 0.6, 2015-2016 p = 1.0) or four-hour breach rates (2014-2015 p = 0.06, 2015-2016 p = 0.6) between trusts that had implemented seven-day changes compared to those which had not. Adverse weekend clinical outcomes may not be ameliorated by large scale reorganisations aimed at improving access to health services across the week. Such changes may negatively impact care quality without additional financial investment, as demonstrated by worsening of some outcomes. Detailed prospective research is required to determine whether such reallocation of finite resources is clinically effective.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 611 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 50 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 50 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 10 20%
Researcher 8 16%
Student > Master 4 8%
Other 4 8%
Student > Ph. D. Student 2 4%
Other 7 14%
Unknown 15 30%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 18 36%
Nursing and Health Professions 4 8%
Chemistry 2 4%
Mathematics 1 2%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1 2%
Other 6 12%
Unknown 18 36%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 443. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 November 2021.
All research outputs
#63,562
of 25,522,520 outputs
Outputs from BMC Health Services Research
#6
of 8,704 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#1,347
of 327,906 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Health Services Research
#2
of 167 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,522,520 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 8,704 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 327,906 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 167 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.