Starting next year, the newest doctors-in-training who take care of you in some hospitals might be a little more rested.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education recently proposed new standards for the nation’s residency training programs.
The biggest change calls for limiting shifts for first-year residents to a maximum of 16 hours. For more senior residents, shifts would be capped at 28 hours, down from 30.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
The changes would be effective July 2011.
The proposals come seven years after the accrediting body for the nation’s medical residency programs limited residents’ shifts to about 80 hours a week, with individual shifts capped at 30 hours.
Before then, residents in some specialties could work as many as 120 hours a week.
But studies suggest those limits aren’t enough.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Two years ago, the Institute of Medicine issued a report indicating there is ”considerable scientific evidence that 30 hours of continuous time awake as permitted and common in current resident work schedules can result in fatigue.”
”The science in sleep and human performance is clear, that fatigue makes errors more likely to occur,” the institute concluded in its report.
Doctors fresh out of medical school spend at least three years in on-the-job training in their specialty.
Teaching hospitals — including all three of Akron’s hospital systems — rely on residents to help provide around-the-clock care to patients.
Some local hospitals already are limiting resident hours.
About four years ago, Summa Health System reduced shifts for all residents in its internal-medicine program to 16 hours.
Residents still get the same training and see the same number of patients, said Dr. David Sweet, program director of internal medical residency at Summa.
”Our residents are better rested,” he said. ”They are happier individuals. They are more humane individuals today because they are not exhausted.”
The program’s leaders have been asked to speak nationally by the medical residency accrediting body to share details about how to make the change to shorter shifts.
”You don’t have residents who are as tired, so they’re going to be able to learn more,” Sweet said. ”They’re going to be more efficient with the work that they’re doing.”
This month, Akron Children’s Hospital opted to switch to 16-hour maximum shifts for all its first-year residents, said Dr. Maria Ramundo, director of the pediatric residency program.
”It probably will affect what our work-force needs are in the hospital. So we wanted to have time to prepare for this and find out where the problems were, if there were problems, so we can address them before these are all mandated,” she said.
Akron General Medical Center will make changes to meet any new residency program requirements, said Dr. Paul Lecat, the hospital’s chairman of medical education and research.
Lecat said he thinks the idea of limiting the workload of first-year residents is ”a good idea.”
But there are hidden costs, he said.
”The fact is, it starts to turn things into shift work,” he said. ”Because of the transitions, you lose some of the ownership of the patients. We’re going to have to capitalize on opportunities to make sure patients are followed up by the people who care for them.”
Cheryl Powell is a health reporter for The Akron Beacon Journal, the daily newspaper in Akron and a syndication partner of MedCity News.
