Michael J. Sacopulos, Esq.
Doctors are busy, enough said. The problem is too many doctors are not getting enough sleep.
According to a recent New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) article “sleep deprivation adversely affects clinical performance and impairs psychomotor performance as severely as alcohol intoxication”.
There are currently work/sleep regulations in place for first year residents yet none for fully trained physicians.
The NEJM went on to state “In surgery there is an 83% increase in the risk of complications in patients who undergo elective daytime surgical procedures performed by attending surgeons who had less than a 6-hour opportunity for sleep between procedure during a precious on-call night”.
That being said, to reduce your risk of medical malpractice, physicians need to be conscious of how much sleep they get. I know that this is easier said than done, but the stats are hard to deny.
“Stats” like any other number are easily massaged to show whatever people want to show. I haven’t had time to critique the methods of this study but can tell you based on what I have experienced and seen in my fellow surgeons, it can’t be true. i don’t even sleep six hours a night and haven’t since i was a teenager!
i agree with you – i have not gotten more than 6 hours of sleep a night except maybe on vacation for i don’t know how many years
There actually was no data truely presented on this article which was actually more an editorial written by 2 non surgeons
this was totally based a few articles which were themselves based testing mostly residents but also some attendings after being on call for fine motor skills judged by a computer model
there was NO evidence presented in the articles quoted that i found on review that demonstrated adverse patient outcomes actually occured when tracking ATTENDING surgeons after being on call
that being said, intiuitively if you are tired you do not think as fast as you do when wide awake -and patients will think the same on first questioning
this same article quoted another study that patients who were asked if they would want a surgeon who was tired to operate on them said no- big suprise- but it is not clear if they asked if that meant a surgeon completely unfamiliar with their case would be called into to operate on them if they did not have their surgeon who knew their case, would they want this.
i am a surgeon and have been told by several patients(at least 4 that i can think of off the top of my head) even when i told them i was not feeling well and did not think i should be operating that they wanted me or no surgery. that is not always possible if it is an urgent case – in reality one has to deal with one’s hospitals OR schedule. those same patients who would want their elecitve cases canceled for a surgeon with less than 6 hours of sleep would want to be rescheduled the next day
in reality patients want it all -their surgeon but when he has a good nights sleep – unless they were the ones who kept their surgeon up all night with a case.
i think people have to figure out they cannot have it all- they can get a surgeon who has had more than 6 hours of sleep all the time but it will either not be their surgeon or they may have to put off their surgery for several weeks until it can be rescheduled. in addition, all other patients may suffer as OR schedules may have havoc reaked on them if cases are canceled and rescheduled continuously. which ever they choose i do not have a problem with but they have to choose what is most important to them and not think they can have it all.