Policies
Duty Hours Policy

Twelve month resident assignment schedules are provided to the GME office. On-call Schedules are provided to the GME office each month.

The educational goals of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation and the learning objectives of the residents in the program will not be compromised by excessive reliance on residents to fulfill institutional service obligations. Duty hours, however will reflect the fact that responsibilities for continuing patient care are not automatically discharged at specific times. We will ensure that residents are provided backup support when patient care responsibilities are particularly difficult or prolonged.

To ensure compliance with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Duty Hours protocols, the following guidelines will be followed:

  1. Residents must not be scheduled for more than 80 duty hours per week, averaged over a four-week period.
  2. One day in seven free of patient care responsibilities, averaged over a four-week period.
  3. Call no more frequently than every third night, averaged over a four-week period.
  4. A 24-hour limit on on-call duty, with an added period of up to 6 hours for inpatient and outpatient continuity and transfer of care, educational debriefing and didactic activities; no new patients may be accepted after 24 hours.
  5. A 10-hour minimum rest period should be provided between duty periods.
  6. When residents take call from home and are called into the hospital, the time spent in the hospital must be counted toward the weekly duty hour limit; and
  7. All time spent moonlighting must be pre-approved by the Program Director, and time spent must be counted toward the weekly duty hour limit.

The Program Director and teaching staff are sensitive of the need for timely provision of confidential counseling and psychological support services to residents. Training situations that produce undesirable stress on residents will be evaluated and modified.

We will ensure that resident performance is not impaired by excessive fatigue caused by program duties or other activities. The ratio of hours worked to on-call time will vary, particularly at the senior levels. In all cases the ACGME Duty Hours policies will be upheld.

For additional information, please contact:
Rina Goslawski
Residency Coordinator
(708) 216-6906 - Office
(708) 216-3280 - Receptionist
(708) 216-5858 - Fax
cgoslawski@lumc.edu