N.Y. Is First State to Limit Hours for Interns, Residents

In an effort to reduce the risk of error by dazed and exhausted doctors-in-training, New York over the weekend became the first state to limit the grueling work hours of interns and residents.

New York, which trains 16% of the nation’s doctors, is leading a national movement away from the century-old tradition of 36-hour shifts and 100-hour workweeks for postgraduate trainees in medicine. The Health Department now limits shifts to 24 hours and the workweek to 80 hours.

Several hospitals in the city had already implemented the 24-hour rules, and a medical council is preparing guidelines that will be enforceable nationwide.

‘Astonishing Change’

Long hours have been “a rite of passage for years and years,” said Dr. Joseph Sachter, chief emergency room resident at Metropolitan Hospital in New York City. “But there’s been an astonishing change in two years.”

Proponents of the tradition say shunning sleep toughens young doctors to the rigors of medicine and lets them study the progression of a patient’s illness. Critics say bleary-eyed residents endanger patients--and can even kill them.