Surgical resident work hours reform does not improve patient safety

Editor's Note

Work-hour restrictions for surgical resident, revised nationally 4 years ago to protect patients against fatigue-related errors, have not had the desired effect of lowering postoperative complication rates, according to this new study.

Researchers from the American College of Surgeons found no significant difference in surgical outcomes between 1 year before and 2 years after the 2011 resident duty hour reform was implemented for five surgical specialties: neurosurgery, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedics, urology, and vascular surgery.