(Houston, TX) — People who have surgery on a Friday face a greater risk of death and complications, a new study reveals. A team at Houston Methodist Hospital looked at 25 common procedures and found that the risks went up compared to people who were treated earlier in the week.
It’s called the “weekend effect,” and could reflect that hospitals tend to operate with fewer people on Saturdays and Sundays. The risk of death for Friday surgeries went up by as much as 12 percent. The study was published this week in JAMA Network Open.
