An interesting story from the Wall Street Journal: In attempt to reduce the rate of deaths, medical errors, and complications, some hospitals are hiring doctors called “nocturnists” who work only night shifts.
These hospitals are hoping the quality of overnight care will improve by hiring physicians and critical care workers to deal with whatever problems arise during the night. Traditionally, doctors work on call, and nighttime hospital staffs are on the thin side.
“People get sick 24 hours a day, but there is a stark discrepancy in the quality of care on nights and weekends,” said David Shulkin, chief executive of New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center.
Shulkin says up to 70 percent of patients may be admitted at night, and they need the same quality of care as those admitted during the day. One study showed that heart patients admitted at night were 66 percent less likely to receive an angioplasty than those admitted during the day.
About 1,200 hospitals in 2007 had either a nocturnist or “hospitalist”–doctors with no outside patients–on staff for night coverage. As expected, a concern is the cost of hiring more nighttime and weekend staff. One nocturnist implied the extra cost could be offset by the “good will” created by not requiring specialists to come to the hospital at night. Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
