Impact of Shorter Work Week for Medical Residents

A few years ago most teaching hospitals reduced the hours that doctors had in training work. Some advocates hoped that would save lives, arguing that medical residents are more prone to make serious mistakes when they are extremely tired. Others feared that decreasing resident hours would actually increase patients' death rates. It turns out the change did both but not to any major degree. On Mondays we talk about health and joining us this week is Dr. Charles Emerman, associate chief of staff at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. He spoke with ideastream Executive Editor David Molpus about the new studies on the impact of shorter work weeks for medical residents.