Emergency Medicine Responds to ACGME’s Proposed Common Program Requirements

ACOEP has joined a coalition of emergency medicine organizations, led by the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD), in submitting comments on the ACGME’s proposed revisions to the Common Program Requirements (Residency).
The coalition supports ACGME’s goal of streamlining and modernizing accreditation. But it is concerned that several proposed changes, combined with removing specialty-specific requirements and limiting what Review Committees can set, could weaken protections that emergency medicine residents and programs rely on. The central message: common requirements should be a floor, not a ceiling.
Key concerns raised:
  • Clinical work-hour protections. EM currently limits residents to 12-hour ED shifts, 60 scheduled ED hours per week, 72 total hours, and six consecutive ED days, with a true day off every seven days. The proposal would allow up to 80 hours per week averaged over four weeks and 24-hour continuous assignments, and it would remove the specialty’s power to keep stricter limits. The letter also opposes cutting recovery time after 24-hour call from 14 hours to 12.
  • Core faculty resources. EM requires one core faculty member for every three residents. The proposal would cap any Review Committee ratio at 1:5.
  • Leadership, faculty, and supervision. The proposal drops the requirement for continuity of program leadership. It could also let program directors and faculty who aren’t eligible for specialty board certification serve, and it allows broader cross-specialty supervision.
  • Educational outcomes and scholarship. Specialties would have less authority to define patient care, procedural, and medical knowledge expectations. Minimum scholarship thresholds would also go down.
  • Program coordinators. The coalition urges ACGME to keep “program coordinator” or “program manager” instead of the proposed “GME administrative professional.” The new term understates the expertise these professionals bring.
Make your voice heard — comments close October 22.
The proposed revisions are open for public comment through Thursday, October 22, 2026. ACOEP encourages members, residents, program leaders, and coordinators to share how these changes would affect their programs and patients.