Impact of extended-duration shifts on medical errors, adverse events, and attentional failures.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A recent randomized controlled trial in critical-care units revealed that the elimination of extended-duration work shifts (> or =24 h) reduces the rates of significant medical errors and polysomnographically recorded attentional failures. This raised the concern that the extended-duration shifts commonly worked by interns may contribute to the risk of medical errors being made, and perhaps to the risk of adverse events more generally. Our current study assessed whether extended-duration shifts worked by interns are associated with significant medical errors, adverse events, and attentional failures in a diverse population of interns across the United States.

Methods and findings

We conducted a Web-based survey, across the United States, in which 2,737 residents i

SUBMITTER: Barger LK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1705824 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature