Lynda Moore/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis, July 1 - At St. Vincent Hospital Dr. Ben Moorehead puts in the hours. He and fellow residents work ten to 14-hour shifts with one day off per week. But on-calls are another story, try 36 hours straight with no sleep.
"On days that you're on call, you'll have to stay overnight. Typically would go home two or three in the afternoon, if you're able to get things taken care of. If not, you could be here till five or six, especially if you have to go to clinic."
New regulations limit the number of hours doctors-in-training can work. Residents and interns fresh out of medical school can no longer work 100 hour weeks. The limit is now 80 hours.
Dr. Steve Gerke, an internist, is also a faculty instructor. "If you're sleep-deprived, you can't learn. And obviously, if you're not thinking clearly, then you have to be careful about the judgments you make, especially when someone's health is involved."
The scaled back hours are all in the name of patient safety. Recent studies show exhausted young doctors burn out and make too many mistakes.
The new standards, issued by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, say the doctors can't work more than 24 hours at a time with a ten-hour break scheduled between shifts.
Dr. Joseph Francis is a VP of Medical Education. "What we're going to rely more on now is teamwork. So at the end of a shift of working, the care of the patient will be handed off to another physician team."
But that creates new challenges as more than one doctor is involved in a patient's care during necessary shift changes.
Hospitals will look for creative ways to restructure schedules and allow for the cut doctor hours. That could even mean the need to hire new physicians at a time when most hospitals are engaged in critical budget cuts.
Most doctors applaud the new rules, but admit the long hours go with the job.
Computerized patient records can help alleviate problems with continuity of patient care due to the shift changes.
