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I am willing to accept bias, but Why would Monday surgeries be statistically different from Wednesday? Clearly weekend surgeries might be different, but the eff

I am willing to accept bias, but Why would Monday surgeries be statistically different from Wednesday? Clearly weekend surgeries might be different, but the effect is still present Monday-Thursday. I don't work in healthcare so there might be a selection bias that I am blind to, and I am curious if you have a bias in mind. Also they did track specific procedures and for all but one (with a low n) the procedures tracked the results.

Frost1x 7y ago
If I were a surgeon, after a few days off of leisure to rewind, I certainly wouldn't start with my most risky, potentially problematic cases. Instead, I would try to pick operations that were the most straightforward. These would be almost like "warm ups" for more complex surgeries I would do later in the week. I'm also not a surgeon...
- mgamache 7y ago
  Sure, but that implies that surgeons control the operating room schedules. I am not sure that's true (it might be), but it's a contested resource in most hospitals.
  - Frost1x 7y ago
    Outside of emergency surgeries, I imagine anything scheduled that isn't of immediate risk surgeons have a reasonable amount of control over, given of course the magnitude and distribution of surgeries that need performed. I can't imagine they don't look at their schedules regularly and talk to whomever does scheduling to make their lives more bearable. When they're on ER rotation, surgeons of course really have no possible way to manage this. My question would be: what's the ratio of emergency to planned/scheduled operations?
    - glofish 7y ago
      ER cases might also not serve as a proper control - the types of injuries and accidents over the weekend will likely be different from those during the week days
    - jdotde 7y ago
      The amount of influence a surgeon has in her schedule varies from place to place and specialty to specialty. It ranges from little control, to being able to look at a calendar and pick the date. Also, most surgeons do not operate on all days. In most large hospitals, surgeons have set OR days (ex. Monday, Tuesday, and half of Thursday) every week and it is incredibly difficult to change that.
bitexploder 7y ago
Could just be that they are the most rested then. Or just how the surgeries are ordered. Probably a simple explanation.
savagedata 7y ago
The problem is with multiple-day recovery periods after the surgery. The later in the week your surgery is scheduled, the more likely you'll overlap with the weekend when care is hypothesized to be lower quality.
- danbolt 7y ago
  Part of me also wonders if people who elect to have Monday surgeries are in a better socioeconomic place to take more time off to recover.
  - joncrane 7y ago
    I've had a bunch of surgeries and I wasn't given much of a choice as to when they were scheduled. These were orthopedic surgeries, but nothing urgent (stuff like a labrum repair or whatever). I was simply told to be at the hospital/surgery center at X time and that was that.

Frost1x 7y ago

If I were a surgeon, after a few days off of leisure to rewind, I certainly wouldn't start with my most risky, potentially problematic cases. Instead, I would try to pick operations that were the most straightforward. These would be almost like "warm ups" for more complex surgeries I would do later in the week. I'm also not a surgeon...

mgamache 7y ago
Sure, but that implies that surgeons control the operating room schedules. I am not sure that's true (it might be), but it's a contested resource in most hospitals.
- Frost1x 7y ago
  Outside of emergency surgeries, I imagine anything scheduled that isn't of immediate risk surgeons have a reasonable amount of control over, given of course the magnitude and distribution of surgeries that need performed. I can't imagine they don't look at their schedules regularly and talk to whomever does scheduling to make their lives more bearable. When they're on ER rotation, surgeons of course really have no possible way to manage this. My question would be: what's the ratio of emergency to planned/scheduled operations?
  - glofish 7y ago
    ER cases might also not serve as a proper control - the types of injuries and accidents over the weekend will likely be different from those during the week days
  - jdotde 7y ago
    The amount of influence a surgeon has in her schedule varies from place to place and specialty to specialty. It ranges from little control, to being able to look at a calendar and pick the date. Also, most surgeons do not operate on all days. In most large hospitals, surgeons have set OR days (ex. Monday, Tuesday, and half of Thursday) every week and it is incredibly difficult to change that.

bitexploder 7y ago

Could just be that they are the most rested then. Or just how the surgeries are ordered. Probably a simple explanation.

savagedata 7y ago

The problem is with multiple-day recovery periods after the surgery. The later in the week your surgery is scheduled, the more likely you'll overlap with the weekend when care is hypothesized to be lower quality.

danbolt 7y ago
Part of me also wonders if people who elect to have Monday surgeries are in a better socioeconomic place to take more time off to recover.
- joncrane 7y ago
  I've had a bunch of surgeries and I wasn't given much of a choice as to when they were scheduled. These were orthopedic surgeries, but nothing urgent (stuff like a labrum repair or whatever). I was simply told to be at the hospital/surgery center at X time and that was that.