Is the "July Effect" Real? Pediatric Trainee Reported Medical Errors and Adverse Events

The "July Effect" suggests an increase in patient adverse events in July compared with other months due to the introduction of new providers throughout the training continuum. The aim of this initiative was to analyze reported pediatric trainee medical errors from May through September 2015 at a tertiary care free-standing academic children's hospital to determine if there were more reported medical errors and more adverse events from those errors in July.

An error surveillance system is used to report and track near misses, adverse events, and medical errors. Three of the authors reviewed each report, which was electronically collected in the institution during the time period of interest. The reported medical error incidence per 1,000 trainee-days was compared against those in July for a significant difference.

There are a total of 282 trainees (86 pediatric residents, 81 nonpediatric residents, and 115 fellows) who are clinically active in the hospital at any given month. Pediatric residents had more reported medical errors in July (31) compared with May (16; P = 0.015), June (16; P = 0.019), and August (19; P = 0.046). There was no significant difference in the number of adverse events from reported medical errors by trainees in July (7) compared with May (5), June (8), August (4), or September (8; P > 0.2).

In this single-center evaluation, there is an increase in reported medical errors involving pediatric residents in July compared with the months surrounding July. However, there is no difference in numbers of adverse events from those errors between these months.