http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4512366
Safety of Medical Residents’ Long Hours Questioned
by Rachel Gotbaum
Summary of Findings from the Harvard Work Hours, Health and Safety
Group:
– Average number of consecutive hours worked by interns in 2002-2003
on extended-duration shifts: 32 consecutive hours*
– Average number of hours worked per week in 2002-2003: 70.7 hours**
– When interns drove home from an extended (longer than 24-hour) work
shift, their odds of a motor vehicle crash were 2.3 times greater than
when the same interns commuted from work after a shift that, on
average, was less than 12 hours long. Interns’ odds of a near-miss
crash (in which bodily harm or property damage were narrowly avoided)
were increased nearly six fold after an extended-duration work shift.
– In a prospective analysis during the 2002-2003 academic year, every
extended work shift that was scheduled in a month increased the
monthly risk of a motor vehicle crash during the commute from work by
16.2 percent. (The new ACGME regulations allow eight 30-hour shifts to
be worked per month.)
– In months in which interns worked five or more extended shifts,
their odds of falling asleep while driving were 2.39 times greater;
their odds of falling asleep while stopped in traffic were 3.69 times
greater than in months when they did not work extended shifts.
– Interns were awake 96 percent of their work time in U.S. hospitals
during the 2002-2003 academic year. They reported that their patient
workload did not allow them to make much use of the “on-call” rooms
that hospitals provide for them to sleep.
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