Correlation between self-reported resident duty hours and time-stamped parking data

Failure to comply with Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-mandated resident work hour limitations can result in citations and shortened accreditation cycles. Many programs assess compliance by collecting self-reports of work hours from each resident.

To examine residents' self-reported assessment of work hours recorded on a daily basis using a Web-based product with electronically recorded times collected as residents entered and exited the parking garage.

Study participants consisted of 62 University of Colorado Denver internal medicine residents rotating at Denver Health Medical Center on a monthly basis over a 4-month period. Self-reported data submitted by 60 residents were compared with the times these residents entered and exited from the parking garage at Denver Health Medical Center, as assessed by an electronic badge reader.

A high level of agreement was found between these two data sets. No significant difference was found between the time-stamped parking data and self-reported Web-based data for resident work hours.

Residents accurately self-reported their work hours, using a daily Web-based duty hours log when compared to an independent, objective and blinded assessment of work hours.