Resident hour limits may hit attendings

AMA to take 10-year look at the impact of resident work-hour standards.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. July 7, 2003.

Chicago -- Most medical residents started working fewer hours July 1 when new restrictions went into effect. That's likely to put attending physicians, who thought they had paid their dues, back in the harness of long hours and little sleep.

As resident programs put new schedules in place, they're finding attending physicians, who often work 30 hours at a stretch, are left adding more hours to their days, say representatives of the AMA's Young Physicians Section who spoke at the Association's Annual Meeting last month.

Attending physicians fear that shifting the additional workload will do little to resolve the patient and physician safety issues that were to be addressed by curbing resident hours.

"The work has to be done, and it's falling on the older physicians," said Rajam Ramamurthy, MD, who finds that it's not unusual to be on call for up to 40 hours as a neonatologist.

The AMA House of Delegates agreed to support participation in efforts to monitor the impact of resident duty-hour limitations on post-residency physicians. The AMA also committed to helping ensure that patient safety is not threatened as the number of patient handoffs increases.

The AMA agreed to conduct a 10-year survey to see what impact the new ACGME duty-hour restrictions will have on residents. The Internet survey would involve collecting a 10% to 15% yearly random sample of resident physicians and fellows.