Home call and how its hours count
Updated October 12, 2026 · with an example to try
Home call means being reachable from home and coming in when needed. Being on call doesn't count toward the 80 hours by itself; the patient care does: phone calls, messages and notes from home, and the time in the hospital after being called in. Home call isn't held to every third night, but it can't fall on a day off.
Count a week of home call
Example · runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent
| Day | Scheduled hours | Home call that night | Phone or chart, in minutes | In the hospital, in hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | ||||
| Tuesday | ||||
| Wednesday | ||||
| Thursday | ||||
| Friday | ||||
| Saturday | ||||
| Sunday |
- Counts toward the 80
- 64.8 hours
- Scheduled
- 55 hours
- Patient care from home
- 2.8 hours
- In the hospital, called in
- 7 hours
The 80 hours are averaged over 4 weeks, so read this week with the others in its block. One day this week is a day off: nothing scheduled and no home call.
A day off is 24 hours in a row with no work and no home call: if Saturday night's call runs to 07:00 Sunday, Sunday counts only if you're free until 07:00 Monday.
Enter each day's scheduled hours, the nights you're on home call, and what happened on each call night: minutes on the phone or in the chart, and hours in the hospital. The week shows what counts toward the 80 and which days are days off.
What counts toward the 80 hours
- Clinical work from home: phone calls, messages and notes in the electronic record (6.20, 6.28). Log it in your program's duty-hour reporting.
- Time in the hospital after being called in. The ACGME's FAQ counts that time and doesn't say whether the drive in counts, so ask your program how it wants the drive logged, and log it the same way each time.
- Reading or studying for the next day's work doesn't count.
The limits that still apply
- Home call isn't held to the every-third-night limit on in-house call (6.28).
- It can't fall on a day off: one day in seven must be free of all clinical work and education, averaged over 4 weeks (6.21.b, 6.28).
- Home call must not be so frequent or taxing that it leaves no time for rest (6.28.a).
- Coming in from home call doesn't trigger the 8 hours residents should have between shifts: the ACGME's FAQ says a call-in doesn't start a new time-off period.
Common questions
- Does home call count as work hours?
- Only when you work. A quiet night on home call adds nothing to the 80 hours; in the example above, Saturday's 90 minutes on the phone and 4 hours in the hospital add 5.5.
- Can home call fall on my day off?
- No. A day off is free of all clinical work and education, home call included.
- Is home call limited to every third night?
- No. That limit is for in-house call. Home call must still leave time for rest and can't fall on a day off.
Check your own schedule against these rules.
Use the free duty-hour check with your calendar link, the subscribe link your scheduling app gives you, or a calendar file. Our server reads a link once, sends back only the shift times and keeps nothing; a file never leaves your device. No account needed (what the checks see).