New Residency Schedule Mandates Will Start July 2028
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education plans to revise residency requirements to reduce administrative burdens.
Updated on Sept. 30, 2026 in Remote Work
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Beginning July 1, 2028, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) will implement revised residency training requirements. The proposal aims to grant programs greater flexibility by streamlining Common Program Requirements across various medical specialties.
Why it matters
The ACGME intends to decrease the administrative burden on training programs and minimize prescriptive mandates. By reducing the number of program requirements by 43%, the organization seeks to allow institutions more autonomy in managing their training environments.
The proposal includes a 43% reduction in Common Program Requirements compared to current standards. The ACGME will maintain the 80-hour average weekly work limit while eliminating the specific 8-hour rest period rule between shifts.
The players
Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
This private, non-profit organization is responsible for accrediting the majority of graduate medical training programs for physicians in the United States.
Committee of Interns and Residents
This labor union represents approximately 40,000 resident physicians and fellows across the country and has provided digital tools for feedback submission.
The details
The revisions remove rules governing night-float frequency and the restriction limiting in-house call to every third night. Additionally, the ACGME proposal allows for the reduction of required time off after a 24-hour in-house call shift from 14 hours to 12 hours.
Timeline
September 2026: ACGME released the proposal for public comment.
October 1, 2026: Emergency medicine residency directors stopped collecting feedback.
October 22, 2026: Deadline for submitting public comments to ACGME.
July 1, 2028: New residency schedule mandates begin.
Market Landscape
The proposal represents a significant shift toward reducing federalized oversight in favor of program-level decision-making. This move diverges from previous industry trends that sought to increase standardization across all U.S. medical training institutions.
Resident physicians may experience longer periods of consecutive work hours due to the elimination of the 8-hour rest mandate and the reduction of post-call time off. These changes provide hospitals with more flexibility in staffing rotations, which could impact the intensity of daily schedules for medical trainees.
The takeaway
The move toward a 43% reduction in program requirements marks a return to more decentralized oversight in medical education. Trainees may need to prepare for more variable scheduling as local programs exercise newfound autonomy in defining their shift structures.
Further reading
For additional context on how professional scheduling trends are shifting, visit the Remote Work section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Medscape.
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Should residency programs have more flexibility to adjust physician work hours and rest periods?
