Proposed revisions to the ACGME Common Program Requirements, the rules accredited residencies must follow, would strip EM-specific protections for residents and faculty.
What’s at stake:
- EM work-hour limits
- Days off
- Program Director and Faculty standards
Why it matters: ACGME proposed a major revision of the Common Program Requirements, the baseline rules every accredited residency must follow. Emergency medicine stands to lose more than most. As written, the changes would delete EM's specialty-specific work-hour limits, cap the core faculty our programs can require, and move decisions about EM training away from the people who practice it.
ACEP and EMRA are united in opposing these changes and preparing formal comments. ACGME considers every comment it receives before finalizing the rules, and it pays close attention to where the community stands.
These priorities come from ACEP's Early Career Physicians Section and Academic Affairs Committee, informed by EMRA's analysis.
- Keep EM's work-hour limits — Oppose Requirement 6.29 Emergency medicine has long capped residents at 60 clinical and educational hours per week and 12 continuous hours in the ED. The proposal deletes those limits and applies the general standard: up to 80 hours a week, with shifts up to 24 hours plus four more for handoffs and education (6.33).
- Protect a real day off — Oppose Requirement 6.32 The proposal removes EM's specialty-specific protection and lets programs average a resident's one day off in seven across as many as four weeks. In a specialty that runs 24/7 with constant circadian shifts, a guaranteed day off is a patient-safety measure, not a perk.
- Let EM set its own faculty standards — Oppose Requirement 2.25 The proposal would bar any specialty from requiring more than one core faculty member for every five residents, down from EM's current 1:3 standard. Core faculty teach, assess, mentor and keep programs running. Fewer of them means less oversight for residents and more strain on the faculty who remain.
- Protect resident education — Support Requirements 1.11 and 1.12 These requirements state that the presence of other learners and health care personnel, including advanced practice providers, must not adversely impact residents' education. We support this language and urge ACGME to keep it strong.
Read more: EMRA's point-by-point review covers dozens more changes.
Emergency physicians built these standards around the realities of our work. Let's make sure ACGME hears from us before they're gone.
