Questionable Value of Resident Duty-Hour Regulations

Regulations implemented by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in 2003 that limited resident duty hours have shown little benefit in either resident wellbeing or patient safety. Now, two research groups have looked at the effects of revisions made to the regulations in 2011.

In one study, 43 internal medicine interns in four teams were randomized to a 2003-compliant schedule of every fourth night on call with 30-hour duty limits (control) or one of two intervention groups with 2011-compliant schedules (every fifth night on call [Q5] or a night float [NF] schedule), both with 16-hour duty limits. The original intent to cross over from one intervention group to the other was stopped because of participant dissatisfaction a…