Call schedule

Residents have a very manageable call system consisting of both junior and chief call as well as 12 hour and 24 hour calls.  While 24 hour call or weekends on call can seem like a lot, our program is very mindful of avoiding duty-hour violations and residents are always available to help each other.

Junior call is taken from PGY1-4 and Chief call is taken from PGY5-6.

Junior Call

The junior resident on call will receive all calls for new consults and, on weekends, all calls on established inpatients patients as well. During the weekdays, calls for established inpatients are taken by the residents who are following those patients. If cases are going to the OR and there are no consults to see, the juniors are welcomed and encouraged to scrub in!

On weekdays, junior call is a taken 6:30am-6:30pm, after which time the night float resident takes over junior call.

On weekends, all on-call residents round both Saturday and Sunday. Juniors will either work a 24-hour Friday shift and a 12-hour Sunday shift, or they will work a 24-hour Saturday shift.

Juniors will work 2 weekends per month (that’s only two 24-hour calls per month!).  They are given a post-call day after their 24-hour call since they can be awake all night with primary call.

Interns are paired with a PGY3 or PGY4 throughout their entire first year.  The purpose of this system is to teach the intern and closely monitor their work for the safety of the patient and the residents.

Chief Call

Chiefs will scrub into all cases that go to the operating room while they are on call. They are also expected to be available to answer questions or assist the juniors with consults or calls when needed.

On weekdays, chiefs take 24-hour calls.  This might sound daunting, but more often than not, cases do not have to go to the operating room in the middle of a weeknight.

Chiefs work one weekend per month.  On weekends, chiefs round with the group as well, and are on call from Friday morning to Monday morning. Again, while this seems daunting, as a back-up, there is often plenty of time to catch up on sleep between cases with the juniors taking primary call.