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Background Although the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) limits the work hours of residents, concerns about fatigue persist. A new Institute of Medicine (IOM) report recommends, among other changes, improved adherence to the 2003 ACGME limits, naps during extended shifts, a 16-hour limit for shifts without naps, and reduced workloads.
Methods We used published data to estimate labor costs associated with transferring excess work from residents to substitute providers, and we examined the effects of our assumptions in sensitivity analyses. Next, using a probability model to represent labor costs as well as mortality and costs associated with preventable adverse events, we determined the net costs to major teaching hospitals and cost-effectiveness across a range of hypothetical changes in the rate of preventable adverse events.
Results Annual labor costs from implementing the IOM recommendations were estimated to be $1.6 billion (in 2006 U.S. dollars) across all ACGME-accredited programs ($1.1 billion to $2.5 billion in sensitivity analyses). From a 10% decrease to a 10% increase in preventable adverse events, net costs per admission ranged from $99 to $183 for major teaching hospitals and from $17 to $266 for society. With 2.5% to 11.3% decreases in preventable adverse events, costs to society per averted death ranged from $3.4 million to $0.
Conclusions Implementing the four IOM recommendations would be costly, and their effectiveness is unknown. If highly effective, they could prevent patient harm at reduced or no cost from the societal perspective. However, net costs to teaching hospitals would remain high.
Source Information
From the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles (T.K.N., J.J.E.); RAND, Santa Monica, CA (T.K.N., J.J.E.); Stanford University, Stanford, CA (J.B.); and the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, Washington, DC (D.M.W., C.U.).
Address reprint requests to Dr. Nuckols at 911 Broxton Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1736, or at tnuckols{at}mednet.ucla.edu.
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Residents' Work Hours
Schwenk T. L., Brenner M. J., Auer R., Aujesky D., Rodondi N., Johns M. M.E., Goldberg J. L., Sandroni S., Blanchard M. S., Meltzer D., Polonsky K. S.
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N Engl J Med 2009;
361:928-930, Aug 27, 2009.
Correspondence
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