Knock Knock Eye: ACGME Wants to Cut Resident Rest Hours

Knock Knock, Hi! with the Glaucomfleckens · Sep 24, 2026 · 27m

Coming to you from a hotel patio in Lebanon, New Hampshire, this week I dig into the ACGME's newly released revisions to resident work-hour restrictions. We walk through what's actually being proposed: eliminating the mandatory 8-hour rest period between ordinary shifts, cutting required rest after a 24-hour call from 14 hours down to 12, and loosening call frequency from every third night to every second night. Despite some pushback that current restrictions have made residents "soft," I think these changes go too far and put both patients and physicians at risk.

Then it's back to more…