ON CALL ACTIVITIES
The objective of on-call activities is to provide residents with continuity of patient care experiences throughout a 24-hour period. In-house call is defined as those duty hours beyond the normal work day when residents are required to be immediately available in the assigned institution.
A. In-house call must occur no more frequently than every third night, averaged over a four-week period.
B. Continuous on-site duty, (admitting, inpatient call, etc.), must not exceed 24 consecutive hours. Residents may remain on duty for up to 6 additional hours to participate in didactic activities, transfer care of patients, conduct outpatient clinics, and maintain continuity of medical and surgical care as defined in Specialty and Subspecialty Program Requirements. Therefore, the total day may be up to 30 hours.
C. No new patients, as defined in Specialty and Subspecialty Program Requirements, may be accepted after 24 hours of continuous in house duty.
D. At-home call (pager call) is defined as call taken from outside the assigned institution.
1. The frequency of at-home call is not subject to the every third night limitation. However, at-home call must not be so frequent as to preclude rest and reasonable personal time for each resident. Residents taking at-home call must be provided with 1 day in 7 completely free from all educational and clinical responsibilities, averaged over a 4-week period.
2. When residents are called into the hospital from home, the hours residents spend in-house are counted toward the 80-hour limit, averaged over 4 weeks.
3. The program director and the faculty must monitor the demands of at-home call in their programs and make scheduling adjustments as necessary to mitigate excessive service demands and/or fatigue.
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