Duty-hour reforms have not adversely affected hospital mortality or length-of-stay of patients cared for by new attending physicians who were partly or fully exposed to reduced duty hours during residency, according to research published in the October issue of Health Affairs.
Researchers from Harvard University used a unique database of nearly all hospitalizations in Florida (2000–2009) that were linked to detailed information on the medical training history of the physician of record for each hospitalization.
The query allowed researchers to assess whether hospital mortality and patients’ length-of-stay varied according to the number of years a physician was exposed to the 2003 duty-hour regulations during his or her residency.
