Abstract
813 Background: Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers account for highest ED revisits among cancer patients. Weekend ED visits are also associated with higher mortality. We aimed to analyze factors associated with weekend ED visits among GI cancer patients. Methods: Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) database was queried from 2009 to 2017 for ED visits with GI primary tumor. ED visits were characterized by demographic, socioeconomic factors, hospital characteristics and primary cancer. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were performed. Data was analyzed using Stata. Results: From 2009 to 2017, 6,862,077 ED visits associated with GI cancer were analyzed and 1,811,111(26.4%) visits were on weekend. Weekend visits were associated with increased in-hospital mortality (odds ratio [OR] 1.06; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.04-1.). Weekday mortality was 3.8%, while weekend was 3.9%. Weekend visits were negatively associated with presentation in 2013-2017 as compared to 2009-2012 (OR 0.96; 0.95-0.97), Northeast hospitals (OR 0.89; 0.88-0.91) compared to Midwest, teaching hospital status (OR 0.96; 0.95-0.97) compared to non-teaching and metastatic cancer (OR 0.96; 0.95-0.97) compared to non-metastatic cancers. Compared to colon, weekend admissions were also negatively associated with anorectal (OR 0.96; 0.95-0.98) and hepatobiliary cancers (OR 0.96; 0.95-0.98). Conclusions: Presentation between 2013 to 2017, teaching hospital status, Northeast hospitals and metastatic stage were associated with fewer weekend ED visits. These findings could be potentially explained by increased and primary care utilization. There was a statistically significant association between mortality and weekend admissions, however the absolute difference was only 0.1%. Possible explanations include potential differences in staffing, interventions and procedures over the weekends compared to weekdays. In comparison to colon, anorectal and hepatobiliary cancer patients are less likely to have weekend ED visits while pancreatic cancer patients are more likely to have weekend ED visits. Our findings may help GI oncologists identify patients at risk of weekend ED visits.[Table: see text]
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
