A report published in the April Archives of Surgery has shown that reductions in resident work hours can have a large financial impact, possibly increasing costs by more than $1 million.
Using a computer model with potential future variables, and based on the staffing patterns of the surgery services at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the study focused on predicting future staffing needs at teaching hospitals. The researchers found that reducing resident duty hours to 60 hours per week would require the hiring of 10 physician assistants at a cost of $1,134,000 over five years--a cost increased by $441,000 if hospitalists would be hired instead, and by another $394,000 if nurse practitioners would be used. However, a 10% improvement in the efficiency of floor care could reduce those expenses by as much as 21%, said the report.
“To simply replace residents with alternative providers requires large amounts of human and fiscal capital,” wrote the researchers. “The potential for simple efficiencies to mitigate some of this expense suggests that traditional patterns of care in teaching hospitals will have to change in response to educational mandates.” Read the abstract.
