Responsibilities

Overview of Call Structure and Responsibilities

• "HMHI" refers to the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, which is the home base of our residency and houses most of the inpatient psychiatric units
• "IMP" refers to the inpatient med-psych unit that is part of the University of Utah Medical Center
• “VA” or “VA IPU” refers to the inpatient psychiatric unit at the George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center

PGY1

• Short Call
  
  • 5pm-8pm on Monday through Friday. Each resident completes approximately 15-20 shifts total. Responsible for admissions to HMHI and VA IPU units. Capped at 3 admissions. Supervised by PGY3.

PGY2

• Daytime Long Call
  
  • 8am-8pm Saturday and Sunday. Each resident completes 2-3 weekends total. Responsible for admission and cross-cover issues for patients at IMP and VA IPU. Also helps with ED co-management if a psychiatric patient is boarding in the ED from 5pm-8pm (rare).
• HMHI Overnight Call (aka Night Float)
  
  • 7pm-7am, 6 days per week, for 2-3 week stretches. Each resident completes approximately 6 weeks total of night float. There are 2 residents on night float at one time. Responsible for accepting and admitting all adult patients who arrive to HMHI during the shift. Before midnight, resident completes full admissions up to 5 patients; after midnight, resident is responsible for medical evaluation and orders only. Also responsible for addressing cross-cover issues, emergencies, and requests for discharge by adult patients overnight.
• Backup Call
  
  • Each PGY-2 will serve on backup call for 1 week at a time (Monday through Sunday). Each resident completes 3-4 weeks total of backup call. If a co-resident on night float, day float, short call, or long call is sick, they first try to swap coverage with a co-resident to maintain equity of call shifts. In the rare event that the sick resident is unable to swap shifts, backup call fills in the required shift for the sick resident.
• Weekend Main Hospital Consult Coverage
  
  • Primarily covered by moonlighting residents. If no moonlighting residents are available, consult responsibility is defaulted to the PGY2 resident on call.

PGY3

• Supervisory Call
  
  • One-week blocks supervising the PGY1/2 call shifts (excluding night float). If a junior resident has been approved for indirect supervision (“signed off”), supervisory residents do not have to be present on site. Supervisory residents accept admissions to the VA IPU on weekdays from 5-8pm. Once a patient has been accepted to the IPU, the supervisory resident staffs the admission with a PGY1 short call resident, who then personally admits the patient. 

Moonlighting

Starting in the PGY2 year, for those interested and in good standing with the residency program, there are a number of opportunities for moonlighting. Residents can moonlight both within our hospital system as well as throughout the Salt Lake City area. Moonlighting is not required.