Acgme vacation requirement

[Tessy]

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Hi, is our vacation time protected by ACGME? In other words, are we guaranteed a certain number of weeks to be taken as time off or is it up to program's discretion?

 

[Buzz Me]

Should be in your contract - typically 3 or 4 weeks off per year, though some programs will have vacation "blocks" (e.g. 4 weeks off, to be taken in 2-week blocks).

 

[Winged Scapula]

Specialty boards and the RRC stipulate the requirements for training, including the maximum amount of time allowed off per year of training.

It is your program director's responsibility to see that you meet the requirements for board eligibility. In addition, there may be institutional policies in place but in general, it is up to each specialty program director to determine allowable vacation time (meeting board requirements for training of course) and how that is allocated.

aPD can address this but I cannot find any documentation that ACGME is responsible for protecting that time. As noted above, your contract should stipulate that and is generally managed by the graduate medical education office.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

In Internal Medicine, there are no ACGME rules nor ABIM rules about minimum amount of vacation. There are maxiumum limits from the ABIM. I don't think the ACGME mentions vacation at all except to point out that the "you shouldn't go more than X weeks in a row without a clinic" doesn't include vacations.

 

[Tessy]

Thanks for the replies. I know it is indicated in our contract but our hospital will probably go under a different management and they want to significantly reduce out vacation time. I wasn't sure whether we were protected by acgme or not. I guess not.