Max patient load?

[Acherona]

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I heard somewhere that the max patient load an intern can carry is 10 patients (changed this year from 12 last year) but I can't find any official RRC document stating this. The residents at my program are saying the cap is 12 but i can't find that either on the acgme site. Anyone know?

 

[Top Gun]

I heard somewhere that the max patient load an intern can carry is 10 patients (changed this year from 12 last year) but I can't find any official RRC document stating this. The residents at my program are saying the cap is 12 but i can't find that either on the acgme site. Anyone know?

At my hospital, the max load for an intern is 12. I only carried that many on post-call days. A typical load would be about 7-8 patients.

 

[nockamura]

I think that the maximum allowed as of 2008 is 10 per intern. Not sure where the rule is written though.

 

[Terex]

I heard somewhere that the max patient load an intern can carry is 10 patients (changed this year from 12 last year) but I can't find any official RRC document stating this. The residents at my program are saying the cap is 12 but i can't find that either on the acgme site. Anyone know?

In our program.Hopkins/Sinai we were told 10 patients per intern w/c is being followed...i dont know where it is written but we were told accdg 😉to RRC regulations this year

 

[xaelia]

10 per intern:
http://www.acgme.org/acWebsite/downloads/RRC_progReq/140_internal_medicine_07012009.pdf

Page 4.

 

[MasterShakeDO]

AOA has no cap to my knowledge. At my hospital it's not unusual to have 10-15 any given post call day for medicine and up to 25 for surgery.

 

[dragonfly99]

Technically, it used to be 12 a few years back when I was an intern. However, for 1 intern-1 resident teams I think we were allowed up to 16-18, with the resident supposedly following #13-18. Effectively, what happened was the nurse would call me about all 16-18 patients, because they didn't know some of the patients were being followed by the resident. I did hear the patient cap was changed to 10, but I really don't know.

 

[ShyFly]

We have no cap at my osteopathic program which is dual accredited. The MD interns do have a cap though (10 I believe).

 

[OTD]

There is no such thing as a "cap" for surgery residents, including interns.

 

[mississippidawg]

we've been told 12 for our family medicine program. if it's 10, then it's been broken multiple times already.

 

[TopSecret]

10 per intern:
http://www.acgme.org/acWebsite/downloads/RRC_progReq/140_internal_medicine_07012009.pdf

Page 4.

Many programs have jeopardy residents in the event that the on-call interns have more than 10 patients each. For the jeopardy residents it's like being on call for the on call team.

 

[doxtyp]

My program has a cap of 12 patients. I routinely had 14-16 patients on post-call day while on telemetry floor. I guess numbers vary depending on the program and how busy is the hospital.

 

[elr1983]

Yea, I think my program violates this on a fairly regular basis...it's peds,though, so not sure if it's different.

 

[gutonc]

Yea, I think my program violates this on a fairly regular basis...it's peds,though, so not sure if it's different.

Different RRCs have different rules. To find the ones for a particular specialty, go here:
http://www.acgme.org/acWebsite/navPages/nav_comRRC.asp

 

[bigdan]

I had no idea these "rules" existed! Does any program regularly follow these? It almost seems comical to know that there's a limit, given the caseloads that occur in reality...

dc

 

[gutonc]

I had no idea these "rules" existed! Does any program regularly follow these? It almost seems comical to know that there's a limit, given the caseloads that occur in reality...

dc

I can only comment on the program I was a part of. Yes, they follow the rules. It's been a boon/bane for people moonlighting on the hospitalist services. There's a huge need for people to cover the night shifts on these services now (the boon) but they're busy as hell because the on call team is usually capped by lunch time (the bane). And since there's no cap on the non-teaching service I've seen people admit 12+ patients in a 12 hour shift (my personal max was 10...I don't moonlight on that service anymore) who, the following month could cry "Uncle" after 10 admits (that their intern did) while on service and go to bed, secure in the knowledge that they'd only get awakened to deal with actual sick people, not ED/ICU/Surgery dumps.

 

[asmallchild]

Our program does a decent job of capping interns at 10. There's an admission cap of 5 that I've hit regularly.

When the residents start capping out too, all admissions go to the on-call hospitalist but I don't think I've ever seen >20 patients admitted in one night.