Profession
Tracking residency work-hour violations
■ An occasional snapshot of current facts and trends in medicine.
Quick View. Posted Dec. 5, 2005
It appears that most resident programs are sticking to the hour limitations the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education established in 2003.
The ACGME, which accredits U.S. allopathic residencies, requires residents to work no more than 80 hours per week, averaged over four weeks. Overnight call must be limited to a total of 30 hours, or 24 hours of call plus no more then six hours for educational activities and patient transfers. Residents should not take call more than every third night, have a 10-hour minimum rest period before returning to work and have one day off out of seven, averaged over four weeks.
After reviewing 2,002 of the 8,037 programs for the 2004-05 academic year, the ACGME cited 147 programs for duty-hour violations. That is 7.3% of programs surveyed.
Source: Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education