Sleepy docs and the risk of car accidents

Interesting study from today’s NEJM, correlating the odds for reporting a motor vehicle accident and an extended (>24 hrs) work shift:

According to a study in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, medical interns who worked shifts lasting 24 hours or more were twice as likely to be involved in serious crashes after work than doctors who put in fewer hours.

The implication is that hospitals may be sued for letting sleepy docs drive:

Just as bartenders are now being held liable for accidents caused by drunk customers, hospitals, which routinely schedule interns to work double, triple or quadruple shifts, may soon find themselves sued for motor vehicle accidents caused by exhausted staff, one of the researchers said.

The revolution for changing residents’ work hours continues. I’m happy that someone studied this. I remember during residency, I lived 1 hour away from one of the hospitals I was rotating at. On the call days (1 in 4), you would arrive at 6am, stay overnight with little sleep, and leave the next day around 3pm. That one hour drive back home was quite harrowing on many occasions.