Scheduling Surgery? July is Worst Month for Fatal Hospital Errors
From ABCNews.com:
The ‘July Effect’: Worst Month For Fatal Hospital Errors, Study Finds
Study Finds More Fatal Medication Errors in July, Just When New Residents Arrive
By LAUREN COX
June 3, 2010There is an old saying among some doctors — do not let your friends and family schedule a surgery in July.
July is the month when graduates, fresh out of medical school, report to residencies in teaching hospitals. Anecdotally, at least, it’s been a time when medical errors peak.
A new study decided to see if the so-called “July Effect” was real.
Researchers from the University of California at San Diego investigated more than 62 million U.S. death certificates between 1979 and 2006. Of those, 244,388 deaths were caused by a medication errors in a hospital.
Month to month, the statistics showed a relatively equal chance for a fatal medication error — except at teaching hospitals in the month of July.
The study found that fatal medication errors spiked by 10 percent in July in counties with a high number of teaching hospitals, but stayed the same in areas without teaching hospitals.
The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine . . . .
If you or a loved one have been injured due to a medical error, call the Keating, O’Gara Law Firm at 888/234-0621 for a free initial consultation.
You can watch the ABC report here:
