According to a study published in the Dec. 6 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, end-of-rotation transition in care may be linked with increased risk of in-hospital mortality. 

The research team conducted a retrospective cohort study of 230,701 patients admitted to internal medicine services at 10 university-affiliated U.S. Veterans Health Administration hospitals. Among 230,701 patient discharges, they found that 25,938 intern-only, 26,456 resident-only, and 11,517 intern + resident end-of-rotation transitions occurred. The research team found that adjusted hospital mortality was significantly greater in transition vs. control patients for the intern-only group and the intern + resident group, but not for the resident-only group. In addition, duty hour changes were associated with greater adjusted hospital mortality for transition patients in the intern-only group and intern + resident group compared to controls. The research team notes that alternative analyses did not demonstrate any significant differences in mortality between transition and control groups. Learn more...