O’Leary JD, et al. - In view of the inconsistency of the finding that healthcare interventions on weekends are associated with increased mortality and adverse clinical outcomes, researchers tested if patients admitted to hospital on weekends who have surgery have an increased risk of death compared with patients who are admitted and have surgery on weekdays. Using provincial administrative healthcare and demographic databases in Ontario, Canada, from 2005 to 2015, they analyzed a cohort of 159,101 adults. Compared to most previous observational studies, this study showed a lower proportional increase in the adjusted mortality rate for weekend admissions. Stratification of these findings indicates the association of only elective admissions on weekends with an increase in odds of death. Further studies are recommended to elucidate, whether the increased risk of death found for elective admissions on weekends is a factor of increased illness severity in this population, requiring preoperative optimization, or a true weekend effect.