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Christine C. Mitchell, MS; Stanley W. Ashley, MD; Michael J. Zinner, MD; Francis D. Moore Jr, MD

Arch Surg. 2007;142(12):1226-1227.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In reply

We are intrigued by Mr Venkatesh's and Dr Noskin's hypothesis that further reductions in resident work hours might improve patient safety, thus producing cost savings that could mitigate the magnitude of expense that we have projected for this change.¹ We hope that this will be the case.

We are concerned that it will not be so. The 2003 ACGME guidelines, in terms of patient safety, were based on supposition and common sense because there were few data linking resident fatigue to patient danger. Subsequent publications have identified fatigue as a risk to the residents themselves^2-3 and as a cause of inattentiveness.⁴ There is an association of long shifts with increased rates of medical error.⁵ It seems reasonable that extreme fatigue, as once might have been the case, combined with a lack . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AUTHOR INFORMATION

RELATED LETTER

Making Better Cents of Future Teaching Hospital Costs
Arjun Venkatesh and Gary Noskin
Arch Surg. 2007;142(12):1226.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

RELATED ARTICLE

Predicting Future Staffing Needs at Teaching Hospitals: Use of an Analytical Program With Multiple Variables
Christine C. Mitchell, Stanley W. Ashley, Michael J. Zinner, and Francis D. Moore, Jr
Arch Surg. 2007;142(4):329-334.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT