Comments on a Proposal by an ACGME Task Force to Loosen Medical Resident Duty-hour Requirements
View Public Citizen’s comments | View ACGME task force proposal
Public Citizen commented on a proposal by an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) task force to revise the requirements on medical resident work hours. Public Citizen strongly opposed several dangerous provisions, including allowing first-year residents to work 28 or more hours without sleep (up from the current limit of 16 hours), allowing all residents to work longer than even the 28-hour maximum shift length without needing to document or monitor such instances, removing the 8-hour minimum time off after shifts of less than 24 hours in length, and removing the cap of six night shifts in a row. These provisions are an alarming step back and further endanger the health and safety of residents and their patients.
See Public Citizen’s other work on medical resident work hours