In 2011, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education issued a mandate limiting residents to 16 hours of work each day, and residency programs that violate the mandate can lose their accreditation, according to the report. The mandate was put in place to try to limit fatigue in residents. Before the mandate, residents could not work for more than 24 consecutive hours.
However, even with the workday limit, interns have not been getting more sleep, and the quality of care provided by interns has not improved since the limit was put in place, according to the report, citing research published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
According to the New York Times, admissions to teaching hospitals have increased about 50 percent, while the number of residents has increased only 10 percent. With the limited workday hours, fewer physicians have to treat more patients and in less time.
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