Duty Hour Restrictions, Ambulatory Experience, and Surgical Procedural Volume in Obstetrics and Gynecology

Abstract Background Prior studies of resident experience in gynecology looked only at the year before and after adoption of ACGME duty hour standards. This study sought to determine whether procedure volume differed after completion of a 4-year residency training program, before and after work hour reform. Method Inpatient and outpatient procedures performed by MetroHealth Medical Center/Cleveland Clinic program residents from 1998 to 2006 were obtained from Annual Reports of Institutional and Resident Experience. Four-year experience before and after duty hour restrictions were compared: hours worked were collected from resident schedules, ambulatory hours and procedures were compared directly, surgical procedures and deliveries were compared using a 2-tailed t test. Data were also obtained for institutional volume changes, and a corrected value, based on the rates of resident cases per available cases, was analyzed. Results Ambulatory hours worked per resident decreased after implementing work hour refo...