Paediatric experiences with work-hour limitations

Organizational interventions in response to duty hour reforms

BACKGROUND

Changes in resident duty hours in Europe and North America have had a major impact on the internal organizational dynamics of health care organizations. This paper examines, and assesses the impact of, organizational interventions that were a direct response to these duty hour reforms.

METHODS

The academic literature was searched through the SCOPUS database using the search terms "resident duty hours" and "European Working Time Directive," together with terms related to organizational factors. The search was limited to English-language literature published between January 2003 and January 2012. Studies were included if they reported an organizational intervention and measured an organizational outcome.

RESULTS

Twenty-five articles were included from the United States (n=18), the United Kingdom (n=5), Hong Kong (n=1), and Australia (n=1). They all described single-site projects; the majority used post-intervention surveys (n=15) and audit techniques (n=4). The studies assessed organizational measures, including relationships among staff, work satisfaction, continuity of care, workflow, compliance, workload, and cost. Interventions included using new technologies to improve handovers and communications, changing staff mixes, and introducing new shift structures, all of which had varying effects on the organizational measures listed previously.

CONCLUSIONS

Little research has assessed the organizational impact of duty hour reforms; however, the literature reviewed demonstrates that many organizations are using new technologies, new personnel, and revised and innovative shift structures to compensate for reduced resident coverage and to decrease the risk of limited continuity of care. Future research in this area should focus on both micro (e.g., use of technology, shift changes, staff mix) and macro (e.g., culture, leadership support) organizational aspects to aid in our understanding of how best to respond to these duty hour reforms.

Development of a handoff continuity score to improve pediatric ICU physician schedule design for enhanced physician and patient continuity

INTRODUCTION

Few studies investigate the benefits of familiarity or continuity during physician-to-physician handoff of inpatients. Factors such as how recently physicians (MDs) have worked and successive days caring for patients increase continuity, and thus could lead to enhanced handoff efficiency. Evaluating the efficacy of MD scheduling to enhance continuity is currently subjective.

METHODS

An MD group consisting of 9 attending physicians and 7 fellows redesigned its pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) coverage schedule with the goal of enhancing continuity of care. The attending PICU MDs were formally surveyed to rate the impact of the schedule change on continuity and efficiency (5 point Likert scale: 1 = worse, 3 = no change, 5 = better). A Handoff Continuity Score (HCS) was developed and used to analyze the 30-bed PICU MD schedule for continuity and handoff efficiency. MD service and call schedules were evaluated for 6-month periods before and after the schedule redesign. The HCS for each schedule was calculated by considering every shift change, or handoff, in the scheduling horizon, and assigning scores to oncoming physicians based on previous days worked. Specifically, for each handoff, each oncoming MD receives a score between 0 and 1, calculated as the summation of a series of 'familiarity factors', one for each recent day worked. The scores for all oncoming MDs are averaged to determine the score for that specific handoff, and the HCS is the average of all handoff scores. The HCS was incorporated into an integer programming (IP) model for scheduling MDs to maximize continuity. A z-test was used to assess the significance of improvement in the HCS.

RESULTS

The HCS before and after redesign was 0.57 and 0.68, respectively (19% increase, p < 0.01). Mean MD rating was 4.22 ± 0.56 for continuity, and 4.00 ± 0.65 for efficiency. With the goal of further improving the HCS and (partly) automating and streamlining the scheduling process, the IP was developed to populate physician service and night-call schedules while conforming to scheduling constraints; IP-generated schedules improved the HCS to 0.79 (39% increase).

CONCLUSIONS

The increased HCS was associated with the MD qualitative assessment of enhanced continuity and efficiency after implanting a schedule change. The IP identified the potential for additional scheduling improvements.

Continuity of care in fixed-day versus variable-day resident continuity clinics

OBJECTIVE

Since the introduction of resident work-hour standards, pediatric residency programs have struggled to preserve robust continuity clinic experiences. Many programs have resorted to more flexible approaches to resident scheduling. We know little regarding the impact of such changes. We compared 2 continuity clinic scheduling models: a traditional fixed-day clinic and a variable-day clinic in which resident clinic days vary each week to accommodate resident schedules.

METHODS

The setting for our study was a large university resident continuity clinic. We analyzed 111 resident schedules and 1113 visits by children aged younger than 1 year during 2 periods: July 2007 to December 2007, when residents were scheduled by using a variable-day clinic model, and July 2008 to December 2008, when a fixed-day model was used. We compared the number of clinic sessions per resident and continuity of care. We used the usual provider of care definition of continuity: the proportion of visits in which a patient is seen by his or her primary resident. A multivariable logistic regression was used to model the relationship between patient continuity of care and clinic structure (fixed-day vs variable-day), resident level, patient age, and appointment type.

RESULTS

The number of clinics per resident during a 6-month period was higher using variable-day scheduling (19.6 vs 16.2; P < .01), whereas continuity of care was lower (0.54 vs 0.61; P = .01) In the multivariate model, continuity of care was significantly higher under the fixed-day model (odds ratio 1.40; P < .01).

CONCLUSIONS

Scheduling residents for continuity clinic on variable days results in lower patient continuity of care despite increased resident time in clinic.

Toward a new paradigm in graduate medical education in the United States: elimination of the 24-hour call

BACKGROUND

Sleep deprivation negatively affects resident performance, education, and safety. Concerns over these effects have prompted efforts to reduce resident hours. This article describes the design and implementation of a scheduling system with no continuous 24-hour calls. Aims included meeting Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education work hour requirements without increasing resident complement, maximizing continuity of learning and patient care, maintaining patient care quality, and acceptance by residents, faculty, and administration.

METHODS

Various coverage options were formulated and discussed. The final schedule was the product of consensus. After re-engineering the master rotation schedule, service-specific conversion of on-call schedules was initiated in July 2003 and completed in July 2004. Annual in-training and certifying examination performance, length of stay, patient mortalities, resident motor vehicle accidents/near misses, and resident satisfaction with the new scheduling system were tracked.

RESULTS

Continuous 24-hour call has been eliminated from the program since July 2004, with the longest assigned shift being 14 hours. Residents have at least 1 free weekend per month, a 10-hour break between consecutive assigned duty hours, and a mandatory 4-hour "nap" break if assigned a night shift immediately following a day shift. Program-wide, duty hours average 66 hours per week for first-year residents, 63 hours per week for second-year residents, and 60 hours per week for third-year residents. Self-reported motor vehicle accidents and/or near misses of accidents significantly decreased (P < .001) and resident satisfaction increased (P  =  .42). The change was accomplished at no additional cost to the institution and with no adverse patient care or educational outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Pediatric residency training with restriction to 14 consecutive duty hours is effective and well accepted by stakeholders. Five years later, the re-engineered schedule has become the new "normal" for our program.