PREAMBLE
There must be sufficient institutional oversight to assure that residents are appropriately supervised. Residents must be supervised by teaching staff in such a way that the residents assume progressively increasing responsibility according to their level of education, ability, and experience. On-call schedules for teaching staff must be structured to ensure that supervision is readily available to residents on duty. The teaching staff must determine the level of responsibility accorded to each resident. The attending physician is responsible for the care of the patients. The attending physician shall participate in or supervise the care provided by residents and others to assure that all aspects of care meet acceptable standards.


POLICY
Each program must have formal policies for the supervision of residents. These policies must provide information concerning the method of scheduling of attending physicians so that they are available to the resident at all times. In most instances program directors are required to prepare written explicit lines of responsibility for the care of patients in all clinical sites that are communicated to all members of the staff. These documents must be included in the program’s Policies and Procedures Binder for monitoring by the Graduate Medical Education Committee during annual reports and for internal reviews.

The program also should be in substantial compliance with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Guidelines for the Supervision of Resident Physicians. The program must be in substantial compliance with the specific program requirements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Adopted August 2000, Reviewed July 2002, Reviewed August 2004

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