A Randomized Trial of Nighttime Physician Staffing in an Intensive Care Unit: Kerlin MP, Small DS, Cooney E, et al. N Engl J Med 2013; 368:2201–9.

Abstract

Intensive care units (ICUs) are increasingly seeking 24-h attending intensivist coverage. Although intuitively it would seem that increased attending coverage would improve patient outcomes, this has yet to be studied. To study this effect, the authors at a single academic medical ICU conducted a 1-year randomized study in which attending intensivists were scheduled to work a block of seven consecutive overnight shifts (to encompass 24-h coverage) vs. standard staffing (resident coverage with attending/fellow available by telephone).