Effects of physician's workload on patient safety

a systematic review

Abstract

Healthcare worker's work-style reforms may contribute to not only the improvement of healthcare worker's well-being but also the improvement of clinical outcomes relating to patient safety. This study aimed to determine the relationship between physician's workloads and patient safety outcomes.
A systematic review was conducted on the literatures published from January 1964 to August 2018 in Ichushi Web and those published from August 2008 to August 2018 in PubMed.
As a result, 34 literatures relating to physician's workloads were obtained. There were many literatures regarding working time restrictions for residents in the US, but few studies with high-quality research design. There was no clear evidence that physician's workloads negatively affect patient's mortality and complication rates. On the other hand, it was suggested that physicians' increased workload could increase the number of particular types of errors.
To clarify the relationship between physician's workload and outcome relating to patient safety, studies with high-quality research design are needed.