July: When Not to go to the Hospital

[supernova]

Being admitted to the hospital is never a picnic. But when possible, schedule any therapeutic procedure for some month other than July. At least if you’ll be treated at a teaching hospital. That’s the conclusion of a new analysis that uncovered a cyclical spike across the nation in serious medication errors.


Month to month, over the last several decades, deaths attributable to errors in the amounts and/or types of medicines prescribed or administered at hospitals have varied little. Except during July, when the rate spikes roughly 10 percent, the new study finds. And the likely reason: green doctors. This month-long blip just happens to correspond to when newly minted medical residents are released into teaching hospitals with substantial autonomy to make medical decisions, explain David Phillips and Gwendolyn Barker of the University of California at San Diego.

Owing to their “new resident hypothesis,” they examined death rates for medication errors by county, accounting for the share of teaching hospitals in each. And, they now report, “the greater the concentration of teaching hospitals in a region, the greater the July Effect for . . . medication errors.” Indeed, the 10 percent spike disappeared when the new analysis looked only at areas without teaching hospitals.

Phillips, a sociologist who’s recently focused on medical accidents, had been encouraged over and over by physician friends to investigate the so-called “July Effect,” an anecdotally observed peak in hospital deaths. But the few studies that had looked to confirm it failed, Phillips says – probably because they focused on a single hospital, where the sample size was too limited to turn up a small, if strong, trend.

More: http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/06/03/july-when-not-to-go-to-the-hospital.html

Yes it is US News and World Distort, but it is interesting. If I had any elective procedures in my future, I'd pick another time than July. It's also my birthday month. :P

[Celebration]

1. useful advice

July sounds a bit hot for elective surgery anyway.