Jeopardy call, or backup call
Updated October 8, 2026 · 2 min read
Jeopardy call, also called backup call, is a scheduled standby: the person on jeopardy covers a colleague who can't work a shift on short notice, usually because of illness or a family emergency. Residency programs often call it jeopardy; ACGME's requirements say back-up call or sick call.
An ED example
A group keeps one physician on backup for each 24-hour period, 06:30 to 06:30, an approach one ED director describes. At 10:00 the physician scheduled for 15:00 to 23:00 calls in sick. The group asks for a volunteer first, then calls the backup.
Check the backup's rest before they come in. If the backup worked a night shift that ended at 07:00, covering the 15:00 shift leaves 8 hours off, under the 11-hour line for a quick return.
What a jeopardy policy spells out
The AMA describes backup call, sometimes called jeopardy duty, as cover for residents who can't work because of illness, duty-hour issues, family emergencies or other absences with little notice. Published policies fill in the details:
- What it covers: one EM residency limits jeopardy to personal illness or injury and a family member's death or illness, and rules out vacations, shift swaps, appointments, moonlighting conflicts and anything known more than 24 hours ahead.
- Who is called first: the same program first calls a jeopardy resident from the absent resident's own class.
- How fast: one internal medicine program expects a reply within 15 minutes and arrival within 1 hour.
- Payback: that program expects a resident who used jeopardy for a planned event to pay the shift back to the colleague who covered.
- How it is shared: the ED director above builds 24-hour on-call shifts into the schedule and tracks them so they are spread evenly.
Rules for residents
ACGME requires every residency to have policies that keep patient care covered when a resident can't work because of fatigue, illness, family emergencies or leave, applied without negative consequences for the resident who is out.
The FAQ in its emergency medicine requirements adds two details: sick call or back-up call should not fall on the required day off each week, and only the hours spent in the hospital after being called in count toward work-hour limits.
When the backup takes the shift
The change should get the same checks as any other assignment. In Capillary, saving checks role, overlapping shifts and minimum rest, including shifts the person works at another site. Clinicians can also give a shift away, with rest and overlap checked before anyone agrees.
Common questions
- Is jeopardy the same as being on call?
- It is a kind of on-call: the person works only if someone is out. ACGME counts only the hours spent in the hospital after being called in.
- Can I use jeopardy for a planned day off?
- Usually not. The policies above are built for illness and emergencies; one allows jeopardy for a planned event only after every other option fails, and the resident pays the shift back. Plan ahead with schedule requests or trades.
- What if the backup is also unavailable?
- Groups set their own fallback. One academic ED's plan has the physicians on the shifts before and after the missed shift extend theirs to 12 hours.
Build your ED schedule with rest checked on every save.
Capillary checks role, overlapping shifts and rest, including shifts at other sites, before anything is published or traded.
Sources
- Garvey G. American Medical Association, 2026: How the culture of residency backup is changing
- ACGME Program Requirements for Graduate Medical Education in Emergency Medicine (effective July 1, 2026)
- WikEM: Harbor EM residency Jeopardy Policy
- WikEM: Harbor ED attending on call plan
- UChicago Internal Medicine Residency: Jeopardy Policy (updated 10/2025)
- Silverman M. Emergency Physicians Monthly 2020: Filling the Call Out
- Vedaa Ø, et al. Ergonomics 2016