Opinion: Resident physicians may lose some of their most important work hour protections

The ACGME has proposed eliminating rules requiring residents to have 8 hours off between shifts, cutting rest after 24-hour in-house call from 14 hours to 12, and removing the limit on in-house overnight call to no more than every third night. The 80-hour weekly cap would remain. The author notes that most training programs exceed the cap and underreport hours, and that these detailed boundaries are more workable constraints for scheduling. Comments are open until October 22.