ArticlePatient safety in surgery2012
Resident work hour restrictions do not improve patient safety in surgery: a critical appraisal based on 7 years of experience in Switzerland.
Article in Patient safety in surgery, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- What effects have resident work-hour changes had on education, quality of life, and safety? A systematic review.Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2015Pooled it
- A systematic review of the effects of resident duty hour restrictions in surgery: impact on resident wellness, training, and patient outcomes.Annals of surgery · 2014Pooled it
- Annual Patient EXposure of residents in training over 20 years (APEX-trial): a retrospective analysis from a public teaching hospital.BMJ open · 2026Article
- The introduction of a 42 + 4 h work week for surgical residents in Switzerland - a stakeholder analysis.Langenbeck's archives of surgery · 2024Review
- Career goals of surgeons in Switzerland.Langenbeck's archives of surgery · 2023Article
- Impact of Enforcement of the Act to Improve Training Conditions and the Status of Medical Residents in Emergency Abdominal Surgery.Yonsei medical journal · 2022Article
- The growing discrepancy between resident training in colonic surgery and the rising number of general surgery graduates.International journal of colorectal disease · 2019Article
- Article
- Current challenges and future perspectives for patient safety in surgery.Patient safety in surgery · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In 2005 the Swiss government implemented new work-hour limitations for all residency programs in Switzerland, including a 50-hour weekly limit. The reduction in the working hours of doctors in training implicate an increase in their rest time and suggest an amelioration of doctors' clinical performance and consequently in patients' outcomes and safety - which was not detectable in a preliminary study at a large referral center in Switzerland. It remains elusive why work-hour restrictions did not improve patient safety. We are well advised to thoroughly examine and eliminate the known adverse effects of reduced work-hours to improve our patients' safety.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.