National improvements in resident physician-reported patient safety after limiting first-year resident physicians’ extended duration work shifts: a pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies (10 May 2022)

Summary

This US study in BMJ Quality & Safety aimed to assess whether limiting the hours worked by first-year resident doctors' had an impact on patient safety. In 2011, The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) enacted a policy that restricted first-year resident doctors in the USA to working no more than 16 consecutive hours. This policy was rescinded in 2017, and this study assessed the impact of the policy change by comparing the number of medical errors reported by first-year doctors in the five years before the ACGME was enacted (2002/2007) and in the three years following its implementation.

The authors found that the 2011 work-hour policy was associated with a:

• 32% reduced risk of resident physician-reported significant medical errors
• 34% reduced risk of reported preventable adverse events
• 63% reduced risk of reported medical errors resulting in patient death

They conclude that rescinding the policy in 2017 may be exposing patients to preventable harm.