H2-O2 | ACGME Duty Hour Rules in the Medical Residency Scheduling Tool

ACGME Duty Hour Rules Checking

The H2-O2 Medical Resident Scheduling Tool is the only program that continuously checks your schedules for violations of ACGME's duty hour rules every step of the way.

This helps you save a tremendous amount of time when making schedules: you never need to manually add up call totals, count the hours for each week, and make sure that each resident has had adequate rest between each work period.

How Does it Work?

Every time you add a resident to a shift or call, the program recalculates the number of duty hours, the number of days off, the call frequency, and more for that resident. The results are displayed in the Stats Table (see below).

The program also determines which calls would cause that resident to be in violation of duty hour rules. Below, the program shows that "Sarah K" should not be added to the call on Oct 2 and the daytime shift and short call of Oct 4 by leaving these times greyed out.

The program gives explanations for the potential violations when you put the mouse over the '+' sign for each call, as shown below.

If you put a resident on call when it violates an ACGME rule the program will highlight the error in red and provide an explanation of the violation (see below).

Summary of Duty Hour Rules

The five main rules mandated by the ACGME are integrated into the program. See the list below for details.

For official rule language you are refered to the ACGME's website (link opens a new window).

80 Hours rule

The program keeps track of duty hours scheduled for each resident. It displays the number of duty hours per week, and gives warnings when the number of hours is about to exceed 80 when averaged over 4 weeks.

10 Hours of Rest Rule

The program verifies that there is a 10 hour gap between each day's duty periods.

One Day Free In Seven

The program counts all occurences where residents have 24 hours free of all clinical responsibilities on the schedule. It reports weekly totals and gives warnings if the number of days off averaged over 4 weeks is about to be less than 1 per week.

Call Every Third Night

The program keeps track of each resident's calls and presents a convenient weekly tally. If the frequency of calls is about to exceed the "once every third night" threshold (averaged over 4 weeks) a warning is given.

24-Hours (+6) Maximum Continuous Duty

The program asserts that the continuous on-duty period is at most 24 hours. This usually happens when a resident works during regular daytime periods, then takes the overnight call. The program understands that some types of activities (clinic, conference) are allowed in the 6 hours that follow an overnight call.

Please Note: The ACGME has a policy of not endorsing software that helps residencies comply with their rules. H2-O2's Medical Resident Scheduling Tool is not endorsed by the ACGME. Compliance with the ACGME's rules is the responsibility of the residency regardless of which program is used. Details on the ACGME's non-endorsement policy are available here (link opens a new window).