Changes in Patient Safety at teaching and non-teaching hospitals in July and August 2010 – 2017 were not statistically significant, according to an AHRQ-supported study which debunks the “July Effect”. The study aimed to determine whether patients in teaching hospitals are at higher risk of suffering from an adverse event during the summer trainee changeover period.
For the study, a retrospective analysis of data from the Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System, a medical-record abstraction-based database in the United States, was performed. Hospital admissions from 2010 to 2017 for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia, or a major surgical procedure were studied. Over 185,600 hospital admissions were divided into nonsurgical (acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, or pneumonia) and surgical. Adverse event rates in July/August were compared with the rest of the year. Hospitals were stratified into major teaching, minor teaching, or nonteaching. Results were adjusted for patient demographics, comorbidities, and hospital characteristics. Outcomes were the adjusted odds of having at least 1 adverse event in July/August versus the rest of the year.
The study found that patients admitted to teaching hospitals in July/August are not at increased risk of adverse events. These findings should reassure patients and medical educators that patients are not excessively endangered by admission to the hospital during these months.
Read more:
- Rates of Adverse Events in Hospitalized Patients After Summer-Time Resident Changeover in the United States: Is There a July Effect? Journal of Patient Safety. 1 April 2022.