Patients admitted to the hospital on weekend are more likely to get a preventable illness during their stay, a large U.S. study finds.

A new study by researchers in the US has found that patients admitted to hospital at the weekend are more likely to fall or catch an infection than those admitted during the week.

Quoted by Reuters, Imperial College's Enrique Castro Sanchez says that the study highlights the need for better prevention, including efforts to avoid the most common complications, such as falls and infections, as well as initiatives at the administrative level that can improve staffing or organizational factors contributing to complications.

"In light of the enormous number of patient discharges analyzed by the authors in the study period, any reduction in the rate of preventable healthcare conditions is likely to improve the experience of care of millions of patients."

Enrique Castro-Sánchez is the lead research nurse at the National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance at Imperial College London, London, UK. His research interests include health literacy in infectious diseases and healthcare-associated infections, and effect of social networks on clinicians and patients’ attitudes to infection.