Effect of lack of sleep on medical errors
Effect of lack of sleep on medical errors
This chapter describes the silent worldwide epidemic of medical error, and outlines what is known about the manner in which human cognitive limits and system complexity contribute to problems in patient safety. It then discusses the manner in which sleep deprivation, circadian misalignment, and sleep inertia contribute to the genesis of error, and reviews the literature on the relationship between sleep deprivation, work hours, and healthcare provider performance. It presents the results of recent cohort studies directly measuring the effects of sleep deprivation on safety, along with the results of intervention studies designed to mitigate its effects. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of current healthcare provider work hour policies in Europe and the United States, and the future healthcare policy implications of this emerging work.
Keywords: sleep deprivation, healthcare provider, patient safety, medical error, healthcare policy
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