Researchers in the United Kingdom have debunked the notion that patients admitted to the hospital during the weekend increases their chance of dying. A new study on the "weekend effect" by the University of Manchester concludes that a variety of factors have skewed prior conclusions on the topic. "Hospitals apply a higher severity threshold when choosing which patients to admit to hospital at weekends--patients with non-serious illnesses are not admitted, so those who are admitted at the weekend are on average sicker than during the week and more likely to die regardless of the quality of care they receive," said study co-author Matt Sutton of the Manchester Centre for Health Economics at the University of Manchester. Article