Four years of accreditation council of graduate medical education duty hour regulations: have they made a difference?
OBJECTIVE
Measure compliance with the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) residents' work hour regulations and evaluate their impact on patient care and residents' performance on the Otolaryngology Training Examination (OTE).


METHODS
Retrospective review of an otolaryngology residency program's resident duty hours violations and OTE scores, and review of the associated hospital's benchmark patient data.


METHODS
Residents' duty hour violations were compiled and analyzed for individual violation, postgraduate year (PGY), and service in the program. Annual OTE scores and the department's hospital benchmark measures (inpatient mortality, inpatient length of stay, 30-day readmission rate) were compared before and after the institution of the ACGME duty hours mandate.


RESULTS
The 10-hour rule was most frequently violated; residents on the oncology service and PGY-2 year were most commonly in violation. There was no difference before and after institution of the ACGME duty hours mandate in 30-day hospital readmission rates (P = .42), hospital mortality index (P = .55), length of stay (P = .55), OTE scores (P = .11, Student's t test), and graduating resident's operative volume.


CONCLUSIONS
Institution of the ACGME duty hour regulations did not improve patient care as measured by the 30-day readmission rate, inhospital mortality, and patient's length of stay. Residents' performance on the OTE did not change after implementation of the ACGME rules. Further studies are warranted to assess the impact of the ACGME work hour regulations on patient care and resident-physicians' training.
Shonka
David C
DC
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908, USA.
Ghanem
Tamer A
TA
Hubbard
Matthew A
MA
Barker
Daniel A
DA
Kesser
Bradley W
BW
D000068:Accreditation; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000592:standards*; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D010036:Otolaryngology / Q000193:education*; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014768:Virginia; D016526:Workload