Duty Hours
The Pathology Residency Program is committed to comply with limits on duty hours required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and adopted by the Institutional Graduate Medical Education Committee. Specifically:
- Duty hours are defined as all clinical and academic activities related to the residency program, i.e., patient care (both inpatient and outpatient), administrative duties related to patient care, the provision for transfer of patient care, time spent in-house during call activities, and scheduled academic exercises such as conferences. Duty hours do not include reading and preparation time spent away from the duty site.
- Duty Hours must be limited to 80 hours per week, averaged over a four-week period, inclusive of all in-house call activities.
- Residents must be provided with 1 day in 7 free from all educational and service responsibilities, averaged over a 4-week period, inclusive of call. One day is defined as one continuous 24-hour period free from all clinical, educational and administrative activities.
- Adequate time for rest and personal activities must be provided. This should consist of a 10 hour time period provided between all daily duty periods and after in-house call.
Residents are required to submit monthly attestations about their duty hours and call activities to the Institutional GMEC.
Residents are encouraged to report suspected duty hours violations to the attending on the service in question, to the Program Director, and/or to the Institutional GMEC.
Call
The Pathology Residency Program is committed to comply with limits on resident call activities required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and adopted by the Institutional Graduate Medical Education Committee. Specifically:
- In-house call must occur no more frequently than every third night, averaged over a four-week period.
- Continuous on-site duty, including in-house call, 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 by Specialty and Subspecialty Program Requirements.
- No new patients, as defined in Specialty and Subspecialty Program Requirements, may be accepted after 24 hours of continuous duty.
- At-home call (pager call) is defined as call from outside the assigned institution.
- 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.
- When residents are called into the hospital from home, the hours residents spend in-house are counted toward the 80-hour limit.
- The program director and 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.
- PGY1 residents may not take overnight call.
Moonlighting
The Pathology Residency Program is committed to comply with limits on moonlighting activities required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and adopted by the Institutional Graduate Medical Education Committee. Specifically:
- Because residency education is a full-time endeavor, the program director must ensure that moonlighting does not interfere with the ability of the resident to achieve the goals and objectives of the educational program.
- The program director must comply with the sponsoring institution's written policies and procedures regarding moonlighting, in compliance with the Institutional Requirements III. D.1.k.
- Moonlighting that occurs within the residency program and/or the sponsoring institution or the non-hospital sponsor's primary clinical site(s), ie, internal moonlighting, must be counted toward the 80-hour weekly limit on duty hours.
Institutional Rules Regarding Moonlighting State
- Residents who engage in off-duty employment or outside professional activities not associated with their training program at UHC are moonlighting. Moonlighting is only permitted if the following requirements are met:
- Moonlighting residents must hold a permanent DEA number as well as a permanent license to practice from the Ohio State Medical Board;
- Moonlighting residents must obtain professional liability insurance since they will not be covered by the liability insurance that is in place for Residents while in training;
- Moonlighting residents may not moonlight at any facility where they rotate for GME credit; and
- Moonlighting residents must obtain prior written approval of the Program Director.
- Moonlighting that occurs within the residency program and/or the sponsoring institution or the non-hospital sponsor's primary clinical site(s), i.e., internal moonlighting, must be counted toward the 80-hour weekly limit on duty hours.
- Patient care activities that are external to the educational program and occur at UHC or any affiliated institution utilized by the residency program, are considered moonlighting and must be counted toward the weekly limit on duty hours. Ordinarily, this is not permitted without prior written approval of the Program Director.
- Residents who are visa holders may receive compensation only for training activities that are part of their defined training program. According to Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates guidelines, employment outside the residency or fellowship program is not permitted.