Is seniority of emergency physician associated with the weekend mortality effect? An exploratory analysis of electronic health records in the UK.

Our findings suggest that the weekend effect was driven by a higher proportion of admitted patients requiring immediate resuscitation at the weekend. Junior doctors admitted a lower proportion of relatively healthy patients at the weekend compared with the weekday, thus diluting the risk pool of weekday admissions and contributing to the weekend effect. Senior doctors' admitting behaviour did not change at the weekend, and the corresponding weekend effect was reduced.