Call Schedule
All orthopaedic call may be taken from home provided you reside within a reasonable distance from the hospital. At the University Hospital, the call is split into Floor call, Fracture/ER call, VA call and Chief call.
- Floor Call – HO I’s and II’s take all floor call. This covers all orthopaedic inpatients (not consults). The floor call resident is also expected to be ready to provide back up for the fracture call resident. That is, if the ER is extremely busy, the floor call resident may be called in (“rip corded”) to help in the OR. If there are admits directly to the floor, these patients are worked up and admitted by the floor call resident. Additionally, specific items and patient care duties may be signed out to the floor call resident to check on and perform during their call.
- Fracture/ER Call – Sunday through Thursday, the HO III on night float covers the ER and inpatient consults. On Friday and Saturday, the HO II on Sports Service and HO III on the others services (with the exception of the Hand HO III) share fracture call. The fracture call resident covers the main and pediatric ER, urgent in-patient consults (after 6 pm), in-patient consult service, and pages from outside ER’s and patients. Night coverage begins at 6 pm and ends at 7 am Monday through Friday and 7 am to 7 pm on Saturday/Sunday/Holidays.
- The trauma HO II covers the ER and inpatient consults from 7 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday.
- Chief Call – The HO IV’s and HO V’s split chief call with the exception of the HO V on Sports and VA. The duties as chief resident on call are to provide supervision and guidance for the junior resident on call. Chiefs are present for all operative cases and assist in the ER as necessary.
- Hand Consults – All hand consults are covered by residents on the Hand Service, primarily the HO III resident. Emergency room hand consults are shared with the Plastic Surgery Service. This schedule is determined on a month to month basis. Currently, the Orthopaedics Hand Call schedule is comprised of 4 hand calls per month.
- Spine Consults – Spine consults are seen by the general orthopaedic resident on call. They are split between orthopaedic surgery and neurosurgery. Service assignment is based on neurologic status. If the patient is neuro-intact, Orthopaedics is consulted; if neuro-compromised, Neurosurgery is consulted.
- VA Call – The two residents rotating at the VA hospital cover their own calls (floor, urgent care).
