Multicenter Intensivist Weekend Scheduling Study

During the study period, each participating ICU alternated between two distinct intensivist staffing formats: (i) in the Discontinuous arm of the study, there was a weekend cross-coverage format wherein an intensivist was responsible for care for a two week or half-month block, but colleagues covered the weekends within each block, or (ii) in the Continuous arm of the study, there was an uninterrupted staffing format, wherein a single intensivist was responsible for the entire two week, or half-month, period. In each ICU the study interval was divided into three phases, so that the models alternated twice in each ICU, beginning with either the weekend cross-coverage or the uninterrupted staffing formats, the four hospitals were randomly assigned between these two patterns.