Surgeon Well-Being Impacted by Home Call: Loss of Sleep and Burnout Results

Home call for acute care surgeons was found to have detrimental effects on sleep and burnout, even without receiving calls or returning to the hospital. A study involving 224 surgeons wearing tracking devices and completing daily surveys revealed that home call without calls resulted in 3 minutes of sleep loss, while home call with calls led to an additional 14 minutes of sleep loss, and home call with a return to the hospital caused a further 70 minutes of sleep loss. These variations of home call also reduced feelings of restedness and increased daily burnout, emphasizing the need for careful consideration of call schedules to mitigate adverse effects on health and well-being.