Figure 2 (facing page). Serious Errors, Adverse Events, and Near Misses by Site and Schedule.

The control schedules included shifts of 24 hours or more; the intervention schedules eliminated extended shifts and cycled resident physicians through day and night shifts of 16 hours or less. The relative risk is for the intervention schedule as compared with the control schedule. Panel A shows the relative risk of serious medical errors, both resident-physician–related (primary outcome) and unitwide, Panel B the relative risk of preventable adverse events, and Panel C the relative risk of near misses.