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Article from Associated Press:
Link: <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=534&e=2&cid=534&u=/ap/20020612/ap_on_he_me/tired_residents_1" target="_blank">Article Link</a>
An organization that accredits training programs in the nation's hospitals is imposing new limits on how many hours medical residents can work, in part to reduce the risk of dangerous errors by tired doctors-in-training.
The limits were approved on Tuesday by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and were announced on Wednesday.
They are the first national limits ever put on the total number of hours that medical residents can work.
Residents' work weeks will be limited to 80 hours and they must get at least 10 hours of rest between duty periods. Also, residents will not be allowed to be on duty for more than 24 hours at a time.
The council retained previous standards set in the 1980s: Residents should get one day in seven off and should not be on call more often than one day out of three.
The new rules take effect in July 2003.
Generally, at hospitals around the country, there are no limits on the total number of hours medical residents can work in a week. Some doctors-in-training complain that they routinely toil more than 100 hours a week and are on call every other night.
Grueling hours have been part of doctors' training for generations, and many older doctors believe such training teaches physicians to make hard decisions when they are fatigued and under pressure.
But Dr. David Leach, executive director of the council, said long hours raise the risk of mistakes that can harm patients and can undermine doctors' education, because they get so tired that cannot learn as well.
New York State already limits medical residents to 80 hours a week and no more than 24 hours at a stretch ? restrictions prompted by the death of a patient named Libby Zion in New York City 1984.
The council can withdraw accreditation from teaching hospitals that do not comply. A hospital that as been stripped of its accreditation for training doctors can lose students and millions in federal funding.
Link: <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=534&e=2&cid=534&u=/ap/20020612/ap_on_he_me/tired_residents_1" target="_blank">Article Link</a>
An organization that accredits training programs in the nation's hospitals is imposing new limits on how many hours medical residents can work, in part to reduce the risk of dangerous errors by tired doctors-in-training.
The limits were approved on Tuesday by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and were announced on Wednesday.
They are the first national limits ever put on the total number of hours that medical residents can work.
Residents' work weeks will be limited to 80 hours and they must get at least 10 hours of rest between duty periods. Also, residents will not be allowed to be on duty for more than 24 hours at a time.
The council retained previous standards set in the 1980s: Residents should get one day in seven off and should not be on call more often than one day out of three.
The new rules take effect in July 2003.
Generally, at hospitals around the country, there are no limits on the total number of hours medical residents can work in a week. Some doctors-in-training complain that they routinely toil more than 100 hours a week and are on call every other night.
Grueling hours have been part of doctors' training for generations, and many older doctors believe such training teaches physicians to make hard decisions when they are fatigued and under pressure.
But Dr. David Leach, executive director of the council, said long hours raise the risk of mistakes that can harm patients and can undermine doctors' education, because they get so tired that cannot learn as well.
New York State already limits medical residents to 80 hours a week and no more than 24 hours at a stretch ? restrictions prompted by the death of a patient named Libby Zion in New York City 1984.
The council can withdraw accreditation from teaching hospitals that do not comply. A hospital that as been stripped of its accreditation for training doctors can lose students and millions in federal funding.
