Surgery

Outcomes of Daytime Procedures Performed by Attending Surgeons after Night Work

Anand Govindarajan, M.D., David R. Urbach, M.D., Matthew Kumar, M.Sc., Qi Li, M.Sc., Brian J. Murray, M.D., David Juurlink, M.D., Ph.D., Erin Kennedy, M.D., Ph.D., Anna Gagliardi, Ph.D., Rinku Sutradhar, Ph.D., and Nancy N. Baxter, M.D., Ph.D.

N Engl J Med 2015; 373:845-853 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1415994

August 27, 2015

Background: Sleep loss in attending physicians has an unclear effect on patient outcomes. In this study, researchers examined the effect of medical care provided by physicians after midnight on the outcomes of their scheduled elective procedures performed during the day.

Methods: The study authors conducted a population-based, retrospective, matched-cohort study in Ontario, Canada. Patients undergoing 1 of 12 elective daytime procedures performed by a physician who had treated patients from midnight to 7 a.m. were matched in a 1:1 ratio to patients undergoing the same procedure by the same physician on a day when the physician had not treated patients after midnight. Outcomes included death, readmission, complications, length of stay, and procedure duration. Generalized estimating equations were used to compare outcomes between patient groups.

Results: The authors included 38,978 patients, treated by 1448 …

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