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[Rogerdodger]

'July Effect': Worst Month For Fatal Hospital Errors...

Fatal medication errors spike 10 percent in July
June 3, 2010
Researchers from the University of California at San Diego investigated more than 62 million U.S. death certificates between 1979 and 2006. Of those, 244,388 deaths were caused by a medication errors in a hospital.

Month to month, the statistics showed a relatively equal chance for a fatal medication error -- except at teaching hospitals in the month of July.

The study found that fatal medication errors spiked by 10 percent in July in counties with a high number of teaching hospitals, but stayed the same in areas without teaching hospitals.
The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

[maineman]

well known in the medical profession. Medical training ends in June and newbie docs are sent out into the "real world" July 1. All of us in medicine have always advised family and friends not to get sick in July.... mm