Warning: stay away from the hospital in July!

Are hospitals really more dangerous in July? Is there any truth to the rumor that there are more deaths and major complications in July? for years, there has been talk in the medical community about getting sick in July. One of the reasons that this is a concern is that U.S. doctors begin their residencies at teaching hospitals on July 1st.

July is when hospitals get their new groups of interns and resident physicians, and many believe a time when we see the most medical mistakes. It’s the so-called “July Effect”.

There has been some new research that deems that there is some truth to it.  Researchers from the University of California at San Diego investigated more than 62 million U.S. death certificates over a 27 year span. Nearly 250,000 of those deaths were caused by medication errors in a hospital. Research has shown that there is no spike in deaths or major complications in July or during full moons, Fridays or late afternoons. However, medication errors that result in death do increase by 10% at teaching hospitals during the month of July.

• 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.

“David Phillips, the lead author of the study, says “there’s something going on at teaching hospitals in July, and the most common thing people think of was residents starting.”

Phillips, a sociologist at the University of California-San Diego has reviewed 62 million deaths between 1979 and 2006 and focused on 244,388 fatal drug errors. The study found no spike in such deaths outside of hospitals or in counties without teaching hospitals.

And, Phillips says, he found no sign such deaths were decreasing amid rising concerns about patient safety and residents’ long work hours (which were cut in 2003). More study is needed, he says, to see if non-fatal drug errors also rise in July.”  USA Today

Hospitals in July are full of new people — not only doctors, but nurses, pharmacists and other caregivers fresh from graduation so it must be a pretty confusing place to be.