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Resident Physician Responsibilities

Introduction

Date of Last Review 6/6/07
SME: Professor/Director of Residency Training

UTHCPC is dedicated to provide quality patient care at all times during the patient's stay

Resident physician

A resident physician is a physician getting hands-on experience in the hospital as on-the-job training before s/he can practice on his/her own. S/he is available to manage any emergencies of a medical or psychiatric nature while on-call.

Schedule

The department of psychiatry at the Mental Sciences Institute prepares the on-call schedule under the supervision of the chief resident and posts it as follows:

 

Posts the preliminary schedule until the 20th of the month

Switching dates: Up to the 20th of the month, a resident can switch his/her on-call dates for personal reasons. S/he must arrange his/her own coverage with a resident colleague and inform the chief residents of the change.

 

On the 20th of each month, a resident gives the Chairman the complete on-call schedule for final preparation and distribution

Schedule changes: Once the on-call schedule has been printed and distributed, it cannot be changed.

Weekday responsibilities

The long call and the short call resident physician weekday responsibilities are as follows:

On-call

Responsibilities

Long call resident

Represents the Department of Psychiatry

Picks up the call beeper from the page operator promptly at 3:00 p.m.

 

Cross-covers the hospital from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m. the following morning

 

Starts working with the Short Call Resident to work-up admissions in the receiving unit at 3:00pm
Expected ratio: The expected ratio of work-ups is two short call for every one long call work-up up to11:00 p.m.

 

Covers voluntary admission screening and walk-ins from 3:00 p.m. onwards

 

Completes History and Physical (H&P), medical orders, and stabilization of all the patients admitted in the evening

 

Has the option of going to bed at 8:00 a.m. in the call room. Has arranged a check-in appointment with the unit attending for the post call day (45 minutes or less, no notes to write).

 

Attends seminars or other academic duties and can go home after seminar

Short call resident

Works from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. unless s/he is needed to stay longer. There is no patient limit.

 

If the short call resident is in the hospital at 3:00 a.m. or later, that resident is excused from rounds in their assigned unit at UTHCPC. They are required to attend mid-day seminars or academic activities.

Weekend responsibilities

The short call and long call resident physician weekend responsibilities are as follows:

On-call

Responsibilities

Long call resident

Arrives at the hospital promptly at 8:00 a.m. and gets the call pager from the resident who was on call from the previous day. Both residents must be physically present to exchange the on-call beeper.

 

Asks for information about patients who need special attention over the next call period and handles walk-ins
Have the option of pairing with another resident for Saturday or Sunday calls:
One covers 8:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.
The other resident takes 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m
The residents sign up for a second weekend day, and reverse the day and night responsibility
  The day shift resident is responsible for admissions admitted before 6:00 p.m.

Short call resident

Is available to come to the hospital and help if things get too busy or if the long call resident must leave the hospital for some emergency or illness. The chief resident is notified in this case. Upon request from the long call resident, s/he helps on calls from the units.

Child/adolescent unit

Admissions in Child/Adolescent Unit after 3:00 p.m. are the responsibility of the On Call Resident.

Illness coverage

When the long call resident is ill and unable to find anyone to trade the call s/he does the following:

Stage

Description

1

Notifies the UTHCPC chief resident

2

The chief resident notifies the short call resident to cover the call

3

The long call resident pays back the call to the short call resident or the chief resident assigns it

Expectations from unit resident

The long call resident expects the following from the unit resident:

Issues proper patient orders including the following before his/her call ends at 5:00 p.m.:

PRN's

Transfers

Discharge orders

Other pending issues

 

Writes a status report of any complications that s/he is expecting form his/her patients

Duty completion report

The long call resident reports to the UTHCPC chief resident if the unit resident did not complete his/her on call duty.

PGY

PGY stands for Psychiatry Graduate Year.

First/second year residents

First year and second year residents (PGY-1 and PGY-2) are responsible for calls from the units until 5:00 p.m.

Exceptions:

 

When PGY-2 residents are assigned to outpatient duty one afternoon per week, they are not responsible for finding coverage. They notify the appropriate attending physician when they are on outpatient duty.

 

Residents assigned out of their units are not responsible for finding coverage; this is to be provided by the attending physician on duty on the unit.

Questions

Three people are available to answer any questions or if a problem arises:

 

The backup resident

 

The chief resident for that institution

 

The attending on call

Related standards

The Joint Commission : Medical Staff

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Harris County Psychiatric Center University of Texas Health Science Center