" Doctors Make Worse Decisions as the Day Wears On ! "

November 26, 2014

Research Fact 
" Doctors Make Worse Decisions as the Day Wears On ! " 
Observation : 
Primary-care doctors’ likelihood of prescribing antibiotics for acute respiratory infections increased by 1% in their second hour of work, 14% in the third hour, and 26% in the fourth, suggesting that physicians experience “decision fatigue” over the course of a day . 
Overprescription of antibiotics is a widespread phenomenon: In two-thirds of the cases studied by the researchers, antibiotics were prescribed even though they were not indicated, the Times says.

SOURCE: Doctors and Decision Fatigue &  a New York Times report of an 18-month U.S. medical study.