In an article published in the Journal of the Americal Medical Association, Dr. J. Todd Arnedt, et al, concluded that following a heavy call, medical residents performed a series of driving-related tasks approximately as well as after completing a light call and boozing it up to a BAC of .04-05%:
Participants achieved the target blood alcohol concentration. Compared with light call, heavy call reaction times were 7% slower; commission errors were 40% higher; and lane variability and speed variability on the driving simulator were 27% and 71% greater, respectively. Speed variability was 29% greater in heavy call with placebo than light call with alcohol, and reaction time, lapses, omission errors, and off-roads were not different…
Post-call performance impairment during a heavy call rotation is comparable with impairment associated with a 0.04 to 0.05 g% blood alcohol concentration during a light call rotation, as measured by sustained attention, vigilance, and simulated driving tasks. Residents’ ability to judge this impairment may be limited and task-specific.
Now what we see is a higher likelihood that sleep-deprived residents will cause highway accidents, resulting in more work for emergency and surgery residents, which could result in more sleep deprived residents…
The abstract… (with the statistics cropped from above)
Flashback: Libby Zion and Resident Work-Hours Reform…
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