on-call room on-call room an on-call room, sometimes referred to as the doctors' mess, is a room in a hospital with either a couch or a bunkbed intended for staff to rest in while they are on call or due to be. on-call room in the european community, the 2003 extension of the working time directive to junior doctors and the ruling that on-call time counts as working hours has resulted in the introduction of shift work for hospital medical staff, thereby eliminating the requirements for on-call rooms. a similar change in hospital working hours for interns was implemented in the united states in 2011, but senior residents continue to do 24-hour call. accreditation council for graduate medical education regulations require that residents on call be provided with "adequate sleep facilities" which are "safe, quiet, and private."