Patient Safety Jeopardized by Interrupted Doctors

A recent study conducted by Australian researchers and published in Quality and Safety in Health Care has found then when interrupted at work, doctors often spend less time completing the task they were performing or never go back to the original task at all.

Researchers at the University of Sydney followed 40 doctors for 210 hours, in total. On average, the doctors had almost seven interruptions each hour. Following the interruption, either less time was spent on task they were initially carrying out in an attempt to make up for lost time, researchers presume, or the task was never returned to, which occurred nearly 20 percent of the time.

Interruptions like these occur frequently in hospitals and other medical facilities, making it more likely that a doctor will make an error when writing a prescription, reviewing a chart, or performing some other crucial duty. Patient safety can be forfeited by doctors in an attempt to stay on schedule after being interrupted, possibly resulting in negligence and harm to the patient.

If you or a loved one was injured by hospital medical malpractice, please call or e-mail our medical malpractice lawyers today for a free consultation. We have helped clients with Brooklyn hospital malpractice, Bronx hospital malpractice, Queens hospital malpractice, Manhattan hospital malpractice and Long Island hospital malpractice that occurred as a result of doctor negligence.

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