Don't Get Hospitalized in July...or Else!!

[facetguy]

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/p...=warning-new-doctors-may-pose-health-10-06-04

Fatal medical errors in hospitals spike in July, just as new residents appear!

 

[glade]

Urban legend. In fact, fatalities should spike in June, when everyone is leaving and stopped giving a **** about the patients.

 

[facetguy]

Urban legend. In fact, fatalities should spike in June, when everyone is leaving and stopped giving a **** about the patients.

The study was just published: http://www.springerlink.com/content/n502614282p9266t/

 

[Instatewaiter]

How is this surprising again?

 

[facetguy]

I don't think it's necessarily a surprise, but it does move the issue from urban legend (as glade suggests) to real. Evidence-based, remember? (Well, evidence-based when convenient.)

 

[Instatewaiter]

Well that's ironic isn't it... acting like real medicine isn't evidence based...aren't you a chiropractor... ha

 

[mig26x]

I dont know if this is a cofounder but doesnt sicker people go to academic hospitals therefore affecting the mortality ratio of any statistics?

I will like comparison of mortality of this hospitals vs the non-academic hospitals in other months too.

 

[dpmd]

They looked at deaths caused by fatal medication errors. July is also a common starting month for new nurses. They don't mention if it was a matter of the wrong medicine being ordered, or just the wrong thing being given. If it is the latter it would explain why work hour restrictions for residents wouldn't make any difference. If it is the former, maybe the nurses are too busy keeping the baby nurses from doing the wrong thing to "keep doctors from killing you" like I always hear they do.

 

[illegallysmooth]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA1Oe_akC_0[/YOUTUBE]