If a data analyst is overwhelmed by a spreadsheet, its completion can surely wait until the morning. Teachers have all weekend to grade a test administered Friday afternoon and nine-to-five is standard for nearly any business from a city square to a suburban strip mall.
A doctor’s experience is a unique one, and human lives at stake are nontransferable between people or shifts, so a crackdown of doctors who have been exceeding a mandatory sub-80 hour workweek at Massachusetts General Hospital seems far too firm a statute for too elastic an occupation.
Six years ago, an accreditation agency put forth a limit on the number of hours a doctor is allowed to work each week in different hospitals across the country out of fear that lethargy from lengthy shifts might result in mistakes or malpractice. Since then, 57 hospitals across the country have had staff put on probation for breaking the rule and another that requires at least 10 hours of downtime between each shift. But doctors work under circumstances that cannot be dictated by start and stop times &- their responsibilities revolve around sickness and unforeseen circumstance. The concern by some that patients who worsen as their shifts end deserve continued attention is a valid one.
Clearly, sleep is necessary for a pair of hands that can determine someone’s mortality. A week’s worth of 12-hour work days and then some seems like more than most can handle. But doctors are not most people and cannot operate under the same regulations as a sunup-to-sundown sales associate. There must be exceptions to the rule if the rule could prevent proper care of a patient whether he or she is in absolute peril or not. While they should abide by time restraints if they can help it, doctors can’t always &- disease is generally not something agreeable &- and if an hour over-budget means a pertinent diagnosis or a timely test result for a patient in dire need, it should be allotted.
While medical and surgical technologies continue to advance, the value of a doctor who truly cares for his or her patient cannot afford to be manipulated. Surely someone would not close up shop later than he or she usually would for his or her own benefit, so if someone in medicine thinks 83 hours might make the difference in someone’s life, it should be respected and tolerated. A couple extra of hours of sleep might make a small difference for a doctor, but a couple of hours of mix-up for a patient might be the difference between life and death.
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