• Joshua L Denson, Matthew McCarty, Yixin Fang, Amit Uppal, and Laura Evans.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Bellevue Hospital Center, New York University School of Medicine, New York. Electronic address: Joshua.Denson@nyumc.org.
• Am. J. Med. 2015 Sep 1; 128 (9): 994-1000.

BackgroundMedical errors occur following handoff-related miscommunication. Data regarding the effect on patient-centered outcomes, specifically mortality, are lacking. Our objective was to investigate handoff-related mortality and the effect of duty-hour regulations.MethodsRetrospective cohort study of adult medical patients at a public, university-affiliated hospital from 2010 to 2012. Patients were divided into 2 cohorts: handoff group (discharged within 7 days following a change in resident physician team) vs control group (discharged the 3 weeks of each 4-week rotation before resident service change). The primary outcome was unadjusted and adjusted hospital mortality rate. As a secondary prespecified analysis, we examined the effect of 2011 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) duty-hour changes.ResultsAmong 23,736 patients, unadjusted hospital mortality during the handoff group was higher than the control group (2.68% vs 2.08%, respectively; P = .007; odds ratio [OR] 1.30; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08-1.57). Following adjustment, this association remained statistically significant (adjusted OR 1.34; P = .003; 95% CI, 1.10-1.62). Similarly, pre-duty-hour unadjusted hospital mortality was higher in the handoff group vs control group (2.87% vs 2.01%, respectively; P = .006; OR 1.44; 95% CI, 1.11-1.86), which remained statistically significant following adjustment (adjusted OR 1.50; P = .002; 95% CI, 1.16-1.95). However, this association lost statistical significance following duty-hour revision with respect to both unadjusted (2.48% vs 2.15%, respectively; P = .30; OR 1.16; 95% CI, 0.88-1.53) and adjusted mortality (OR 1.18; P = .26; 95% CI, 0.89-1.56).ConclusionsResident transition in care was significantly associated with an increase in unadjusted and adjusted hospital mortality. Although improved by 2011 ACGME duty-hour amendments, a trend toward higher mortality remained following resident handoff.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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