Boston (WBZ Newsroom) -- The surgery training program at Massachusetts General Hospital has been put on probation by a national accrediting organization, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
It is unusual for a program, especially one with a national reputation, to be placed on probation, but it happened because of the long hours residents work.
Dr. Debra Weinstein is in charge of the residents program at MGH. She says the inspection was months ago and MGH is now in compliance but it's not easy shortening those shifts. In some cases physicians are working longer hours to give the residents a break. In others, support staff have been hired to lighten the workload.
Dr. Weinstein tells WBZ NewsRadio 1030, "It's a complicated process. Changing a residents schedule is something that's done in a vaccuum. Each of these changes happens in a complex system and could have many consequences so it's critical that it's down carefully."
In a statement, the hospital says: "We were disappointed recently to receive notice that the ACGME has placed our program on probation because of concerns about resident duty hours that were not fully addressed by the time of its site visit in November 2008. Since the work-hour standards were put into place in 2003, we have steadily and methodically implemented changes to our surgical residency program to maintain the integrity of the training experience while meeting the required time constraints...We have been in full compliance with the work-hour limits during the current academic year and anticipate a return to full accreditation status after the next site visit"
E-Mail Story
Print Story
