Impact of the 80-hour resident work week on mortality and morbidity in trauma patients

Question: Has the implementation of the resident work hours restriction of 80 hours per week impacted on mortality of injured patients and the resources used to care for them? Design: Retrospective cohort study. Data source: National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) version 6.2. Results: Overall mortality decreased from 4.64% in the pre-80 hour work week to 4.46% in the post-80 hour week (p < 0.001). Of particular interest were the differences in outcomes observed in academic versus non-academic institutions. In university hospitals, the mortality decreased from 5.16% to 5.03% (p = 0.03), whereas in nonteaching hospitals, mortality increased from 3.38% to 3.85% (p < 0.001). There were also small but statistically significant improvements seen in secondary outcomes during the post-80 hour work week. Conclusion: The 80-hour work week has not resulted in significant deterioration in the outcome of injured patients.