The vast majority of Americans believe doctors should have shortened workweeks in order to reduce fatigue and possibly avoid medical mistakes, according to a survey released by Portrait of America.
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The survey, released in June and conducted in conjunction with Docrates – a physician-operated website that helps guide medical students and residents, said that fully 85 percent of respondents believe doctors should work no more than 60 hours a week.
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"Residents (training doctors) often work well over 100 hours in a week. As grueling as the schedule can be for doctors, it is seen as a fixture within their medical training. Double and triple workweeks give residents more training in a shorter length of time, which allegedly yields better-trained doctors," said researchers at POA.
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"But such work schedules may also result in patient care compromised by chronic exhaustion. Docrates wanted to find out what the public thinks should be the maximum workweek for a doctor," POA said.
By comparison, just 6 percent of Americans believe doctors should work more than 80 hours a week. Eleven percent said they weren't sure.
"Public opinion should not necessarily influence how long a doctor works in a week, but if perception is nine-tenths of reality, patients would apparently not be pleased with care delivered by a doctor they know is working double-time," POA said.
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Respondents were asked the question, " To ensure that patient care does not suffer, what is the maximum number of hours per week that a doctor should be allowed to work?"
In partnership with Portrait of America, Docrates conducted a national telephone survey of 947 randomly selected adults on February 20 and 21, as part of a larger study of Americans' attitudes about health care.
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The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.
In another POA-Docrates survey last month, 46 percent of 1,491 randomly selected adults polled July 15-18 said they believed that doctors have more authority to make medical decisions than do insurance companies. Thirty-six percent said insurance companies have more authority, and 11 percent said they weren't sure.