Inpatient Attending Physician Rotation Duration Study

Official Title: “Inpatient Attending Physician Rotation Duration Study”

The investigators are testing the effects of a change in teaching attending physicians' rotations (from 4- to 2-week blocks) on patient outcomes (unplanned urgent visits to the health care system, inpatient mortality, and length-of-stay), the educational experiences of residents and medical students and on the quality of the professional lives of the attending physicians.

Intervention(s) in this Clinical Trial

• Other: 2-week rotation
  • Attending physician is assigned to a 2-week rotation.
• Other: 4-week rotation
  • Attending physician is assigned to a 4-week rotation.

Arms, Groups and Cohorts in this Clinical Trial

• Active Comparator: 2 weeks
  • Attending physicians are physician-of-records for traditional inpatient ward team (housestaff and medical students) for 2 weeks.
• Placebo Comparator: 4 weeks
  • Attending physicians are physician-of-records for traditional inpatient ward team (housestaff and medical students) for 4 weeks.

Primary Measures

• Patients' unplanned urgent visits to the health care system.
  • Time Frame: 30 days after discharge
    Safety Issue?: Yes

Secondary Measures

• Resident physicians' evaluation of attending physicians' performance.
  • Time Frame: During 14 or 28 day rotations
    Safety Issue?: No
• Medical students' evaluations of attending physicians' performance.
  • Time Frame: During 14 or 28 day rotations
    Safety Issue?: No
• Urgent visits to health care system among attending physicians' outpatient panel (if attending physician has an outpatient panel)
  • Time Frame: During and 14 to 28 days after provider's rotation
    Safety Issue?: Yes
• Attending physicians' work-life balance, perceived stress, and perceived burn-out.
  • Time Frame: During 14 to 28 day rotations
    Safety Issue?: Yes

Inclusion Criteria:

• Attending physician on inpatient general medicine wards of Stroger Hospital, Chicago,

IL

Exclusion Criteria:

• Scheduled for less than 6 weeks during the 2009 academic year

Gender Eligibility for this Clinical Trial: Both

Minimum Age for this Clinical Trial: N/A

Maximum Age for this Clinical Trial: N/A

Are Healthy Volunteers Accepted for this Clinical Trial?: No

Lead Investigator: John H. Stroger Hospital Other

Information obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov on February 12, 2012

Link to the current ClinicalTrials.gov record. http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00930111

Study ID Number: Cooker 533

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00930111

Health Authority: United States: Institutional Review Board