OSHA to Limit Duty Hours?

[WestcoastMedicine]

I am sure everyone has seen the new recommendations for duty hours that most likely will be passed and take effect this July. I just found out that AMSA and some physicians from Harvard wrote a 40 page proposal to OSHA pleading with them to step in and further limit our hours. They state that the hours pose a threat to residents/fellows safety and that it should be under their jurisdiction....


http://www.amsa.org/AMSA/Homepage/About/News/090210.aspx

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[Law2Doc]

I am sure everyone has seen the new recommendations for duty hours that most likely will be passed and take effect this July. I just found out that AMSA and some physicians from Harvard wrote a 40 page proposal to OSHA pleading with them to step in and further limit our hours. They state that the hours pose a threat to residents/fellows safety and that it should be under their jurisdiction....


http://www.amsa.org/AMSA/Homepage/About/News/090210.aspx

Lots of luck. OSHA doesn't have supervising authority here and so it's a waste of paper. Not only that, it would set a dangerous precedent if a US federal entity started deciding maximum hours folks could work -- this would also have to apply to non-healthcare areas and is a very dangerous slippery slope.

This is the ACGMEs ballgame and trying to get someone to swoop in here is an exercise in futility. Makes the AMSA dues-payers think they are accomplishing something, I guess.

 

[wild0ne]

Not only that, it would set a dangerous precedent if a US federal entity started deciding maximum hours folks could work -- this would also have to apply to non-healthcare areas and is a very dangerous slippery slope.

Uh, didn't the FAA (US federal entity) recently limit the maximum shift hours for pilots?

Slippery slope? Hardly. It's called a middle-ground, and it's reached quite often, as it should.

 

[UserNameNeeded]

OSHA doesn't have supervising authority here and so it's a waste of paper. Not only that, it would set a dangerous precedent if a US federal entity started deciding maximum hours folks could work.

This is the ACGMEs ballgame and trying to get someone to swoop in here is an exercise in futility.

ACGME is a private organization. Who is it accountable to? Why does it have the authority to set working conditions and hours? How do we know it's doing what's in the best health and safety interest of residents and not to other special interests?

OSHA, at least, is accountable to the American people.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Lots of luck. OSHA doesn't have supervising authority here and so it's a waste of paper. Not only that, it would set a dangerous precedent if a US federal entity started deciding maximum hours folks could work -- this would also have to apply to non-healthcare areas and is a very dangerous slippery slope.

This is the ACGMEs ballgame and trying to get someone to swoop in here is an exercise in futility. Makes the AMSA dues-payers think they are accomplishing something, I guess.

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. I don't see it as such a slippery slope -- it's not unreasonable for the government to limit work shifts to 16 hours in all fields, and certainly could limit work hours as mentioned in high risk professions. OSHA clearly has jurisdiction in hospitals -- infection control, chemical exposures, etc. The interesting twist to all of this is focusing on resident safety instead of patient safety (which OSHA has no jurisdiction over). It's not totally clear to me that OSHA can limit hours because of car accidents that happen AFTER work (since that's not really a workplace injury), but needlesticks because people are tired seem to clearly fall under the OSHA umbrella.

 

[ForbiddenComma]

ACGME is a private organization. Who is it accountable to? Why does it have the authority to set working conditions and hours? How do we know it's doing what's in the best health and safety interest of residents and not to other special interests?

This is a very good question. ACGME is run by bureaucrats, many of whom wish not to be identified. The organization pursues various agendas which often have little or nothing to do with their presumed purpose -- maximizing the training value of residency programs -- and often have lots to do with pursuing various petty little agendas of the individual board members.

Infintalizing residents is a common theme to their proposals. Many of the ACGME head bureaucrats would like nothing better than to turn all residents into glorified med students, who cannot even write an order for Tylenol unless countersigned by an attending. However, this runs into the cold reality that community-based programs (i.e. those funded directly by hospitals and not universities) would shrivel up and die once the hospitals realize there is no longer any financial point in having residents, as the residents could no longer perform even the most basic grunt labor on the floors.