• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Study: Long intern hours lead to more errors

Quality Improvement Monitor, June 22, 2007

Interns who worked five or more extended shifts in a month were seven times more likely to report at least one significant medical mistake that harmed a patient, and 300% more likely to report fatigue-related error that caused the death of a patient, according to a new study reported in HealthDay.

Laura Barger of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, authored the study of more than 2,700 interns.

Interns who reported a medical error that caused harm to a patient were more than three times as likely to report high stress in that month, the study found.

"These results suggest that extended duration shifts negatively impact patient safety and the well-being of medical interns," Barger said, according to HealthDay. "[The findings] have important public policy implications for post-graduate medical education and suggest the need for counseling or other care for interns who make medical errors."

For more information, click here.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive