NY Residency Hours

[merlin]

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I remember reading that NY legislated the maximum number of hours that NY medical residents (and med students?) can work in a week. What I would like to know is what this actually means in practice. From what I hear, this doesn't really mean anything. Cheers.

 

[carddr]

Interesting you should ask. The case is zion V. NY hospital. Go to Court TV and review. This decision created the BEll Commission(just type in and you'll get the details). Now what that means to you is if this law is not enfored you have legal recourse. Not everyone agrees with this ruling so they may choose to take liberty with it. And if thats ok with you ignore yourlegal rights and be happy, but if thats a concern you have a legal precedance.In a nutshell the Bell Commmission says after so many hours of call you must physically leave the hospital, not even be in the library, leave the hospital grounds period.
Hope that helps.

 

[Neurogirl]

The NY laws are a HUGE JOKE! The wide spread noncompliance with these laws is an open secret...not just in NY, but nationally. The problem with resident reporting is that too many are afraid of the back lash of taking legal action. Also, the majority of violators are inferior programs staffed with foreign physicians and low ranked US grads. Think about it. You're a foreign physician who's spent years trying to come to the US, or you're an American grad who had poor grades and/or board scores. Either way, your residency options are limited. Would you be willing to throw away your spot in an accreditied US residency, ie., your entire future, over your hours? After all, residency doesn't last forever. Most just decide to suffer in silence and try to get through it. 😡

 

[MacGyver]

I read somewhere that the NY licensing boards fine those programs not in compliance.

The problem from what I've heard is not so much that the residents dont report it (they can do so anonymously so they dont have to personally speak up).

The real problem is that the fines are not high enough to be considered painful by the NY hospitals.

I say they raise the fine up $10,000 per each occurence until the NY hospitals are in compliance (i.e. first complaint = 10k, second complaint = 20k, third complaint = 30k, etc)

I guarantee you the hospitals WILL find a way to comply when they are suddenly facing fines of 50-60k PER occurrence.