80 Hours????

[rooster1234]

I'm a surgery intern working in NYS. So far I have been averaging 90-105 hours a week over the last month. I haven't had a day off yet. I've been told that my day off is getting to go home postcall and not having to come back until the next day( getting out by 10 am and not being back by 5:30 the next one). The hospital I work at makes us record our weekly hours and turn them into the department. I've been getting tons of pressure to "adjust my hours" This means dating orders a few hours earlier or later than I actually write them, or just avoiding signing stuff with my name, so that my hours can't be tracked. Then I've had tons of pressure to lie about the hours I turn into the department- You'll be hurting yourself if the department gets fined. So far I have fallen in line and done what it told, doctoring my info.

My question is, has anyone had similar issues? How have you handled them, and what would you reccomend. I've already talked with my cheif- who has told me I need to take care of my responsibilities, but I better make sure that it looks like I only work 80 hrs a week and fall into line with the Bell Commission rules. The chairmen seems to look the other way, and I've been told that if you get caught breaking the hour rules, he calls you into the office and tells you don't let it happen again.

Any advice would be appreciated as I have almost 5 years left.

Thanks.

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[Future GI Guy]

Man, that sucks.

I think it will take one program getting dismantled for things to change in your program. Regardless of the bell commission rules, if the RRC comes and makes a surprise inspection, it's going to be pretty difficult to hide the fraudulant reporting of work hours. I'm convinced we'll hear about a program getting fined pretty soon, though I think the punishment over this first year of rule implementation is likely to be less than the dreaded "loss of accredidation."

I'm a new intern, as well, in Internal Medicine, and I haven't had it nearly that bad. Sometimes we stay after the 1pm post-call deadline to tidy things up a bit, or to finish our sign-out sheet (especially if a senior resident isn't as efficient), but generally, the Chief is in our face barking at us to get home.

I've collected my hours over the month, and I've been honest on the worksheet. I work 70.5 hours a week, which ain't too shabby.

That said, my situation and yours are a little different. I still don't know how General Surgeons are going to take Q3 call and get the OR exposure they need, while maintaining 80 hours / week for 5 years. It doesn't seem possible.