The authors assessed whether the lack of weekend cardiac test availability significantly contributed to weekend delays in hospital discharge for "low-risk" chest pain patients. Mean lengths of stay were compared for late-week versus early-week admissions. Patients with late-week admissions had a 19% greater length of stay than did patients admitted earlier in the week (2.36 +/- 1.87 vs 1.91 +/- 1.21 days, p = 0.10, with p = 0.015 after adjusting for severity of illness). Cardiac diagnostic tests were ordered for only 4% of study patients. Therefore, the "weekend effect" existed in an environment where cardiac diagnostic tests were infrequently ordered.