title: The increased financial burden of further proposed orthopaedic resident work-hour reductions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Increased funding for graduate medical education was not provided during implementation of the eighty-hour work week. Many teaching hospitals responded to decreased work hours by hiring physician extenders to maintain continuity of care. Recent proposals have included a further decrease in work hours to a total of fifty-six hours. The goal of this study was to determine the direct cost related to a further reduction in orthopaedic-resident work hours.
  
  
  METHODS
  A survey was delivered to 152 residency programs to determine the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) physician extenders hired after implementation of the eighty-hour work-week restriction. Thirty-six programs responded (twenty-nine university-based programs and seven community-based programs), encompassing 1021 residents. Previous published data were used to determine the change in resident work hours with implementation of the eighty-hour regulation. A ratio between change in full-time equivalent staff per resident and number of reduced hours was used to determine the cost of the proposed further decrease.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After implementation of the eighty-hour work week, the average reduction among orthopaedic residents was approximately five work hours per week. One hundred and forty-three physician extenders (equal to 142 full-time equivalent units) were hired to meet compliance at a frequency-weighted average cost of $96,000 per full-time equivalent unit. A further reduction to fifty-six hours would increase the cost by $64,000 per resident. With approximately 3200 orthopaedic residents nationwide, sensitivity analyses (based on models of eighty and seventy-three-hour work weeks) demonstrate that the increased cost would be between $147 million and $208 million per fiscal year. For each hourly decrease in weekly work hours, the cost is $8 million to $12 million over the course of a fiscal year.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mandated reductions in resident work hours are a costly proposition, without a clear decrease in adverse events. The federal government should consider these data prior to initiating unfunded work-hour mandates, as further reductions in resident work hours may make resident education financially unsustainable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Atul F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Kamath
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Baldwin
authors.forename: Lauren K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Meade
authors.forename: Adam C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.forename: Samir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mehta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D003363:Cost Control; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D008297:Male; D009985:Orthopedics / Q000191:economics* / Q000193:education; D010414:Pennsylvania; D010823:Physician Assistants / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance; D016526:Workload / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence