New Work Hour Restrictions Have Residency Coordinators Worried
A recent study finds that new ACGME regulations, which begin in July, could hinder patient care and resident training.
As per our previous post, residents at accredited American medical training programs will further curtail their work hours after new regulations take effect in July 2011. Interns will work no more than 16 hour shifts.
Eighty-seven percent of 464 program directors surveyed in July 2010 said the rules will lessen residents’ ability to provide continuous care for hospitalized patients, and 65% said the rules won’t have any effect on resident fatigue.
“The core of the issue for patients is what is it that we need to do in terms of working within these recommendations to achieve the very best outcomes for patients,” said Darcy Reed, MD, MPH, senior study author and assistant professor at the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minn.
More than half of those surveyed said the rules will decrease residents’ ability to become competent in five core areas: medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism and systems-based practice, said the study in the March Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Regulations always produce unintended consequences. The health care system as a whole is at a crossroads, as it struggles to do more with less and achieve the same results. Residents are a valuable cog in the heath care machine.
We’ll see how the health care system adjusts to doing more, with less of the residents’ time….
