RedScrubs
The Resource for Medical Professionals

“On December 2nd, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report suggesting that resident physicians have further limits on work hours than those enacted in 2003 by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). While the number of hours per week would remain at the ACGME maximum of 80, the IOM recommends on 30-hour shifts that a “protected sleep period” of 5 hours occurs between 10pm-8am. These measures are aimed at reducing physician fatigue and the number of resultant medical mistakes. It’s about time some limits were set on how long residents could work without a break.” An average of 195,000 people in the USA died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, according to a study of 37 million patient records that was released by HealthGrades, the healthcare quality company in year 2004. Preventing medical errors that occur during or after surgery could save lives and almost $1.5 billion a year, according to U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) study. That is what this blog is really talking about, reducing medical errors, saving patient’s lives and avoiding mistakes by tired residents who have been on an 80 hour/week shift.