Remember the way residents used to get pushed? Up all night for several nights, no one ever seemed to have a good reason why (some of us suspect it had to do with a kind of pledging ritual, like swirlies for frat pledges). When that policy/silliness changed a few years ago, so did the death rates at VA hospitals. For the better.
The notoriously long hours worked in hospitals by newly graduated doctors, known as residents, were recently cut back in the U.S., and the move seems to have improved death rates for certain medical conditions at Veterans Affairs hospitals.
This is from ReutersHealth.com.