An Elusive Balance — Residents' Work Hours and the Continuity of Care

Interview with Ethan Fried on the effects of the national limits on residents’ duty hours. (07:53)Download Four years after national limits on duty hours for medical residents took effect — and nearly two decades after similar limits were enacted by New York State — conversations with residency directors, attending physicians, health care researchers, and sleep-medicine experts suggest that neither patient care nor medical education is optimal under the current system and that further reforms are needed. But there is little agreement on what should be done or even on whether the work-hour limits should be tightened or relaxed.U.S. teaching hospitals are handling more admissions, treating older and sicker patients, and discharging patients more quickly than . . .