Your Residency at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center (SFHMC)
You've worked hard to get where you are. Being a resident at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center (SFHMC), part of the prestigious medical residency program at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, is an amazing accomplishment. Completing your training at this preeminent medical institution will pave the way for your future as a physician. What you'll learn at SFHMC, an anchor institution and leading teaching hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, will prepare you for a long, successful career in contemporary, evidence-based medicine. The SFHMC Family Medicine Residency Program, in particular, will provide education in the full spectrum of family medicine practice, offering a wealth of opportunities for hands-on procedural training. If you're a medical resident at SFHMC in Hartford, you are already seeing immense value from your selection – and you're gaining the skills, knowledge, and reputation required to start the career you've dreamed of.
Medical Resident Policies at SFHMC
Medical residency programs are rigorous and challenging. It's here that you will take the important information you learned in medical school and apply it in the real world, providing direct care to patients in a hospital setting. It's probably no surprise then that any medical residency program, especially one at a top-tier teaching hospital like SFHMC, has specific standards that each medical resident must meet in order to complete their medical training. The University of Connecticut School of Medicine's Graduate Medical Education Office has a comprehensive Resident/Fellow Policy Manual outlining its expectations regarding compliance, integrity, and professional activities. The University of Connecticut School of Medicine, at SFHMC and its other affiliated institutions, has set exacting standards for the members of its medical residencies, and maintains a highly regulated professional environment for the protection of both patients and staff. Those policies for medical residents include:
- Under Compliance and Integrity, a discussion of conflict of interest/vendor interactions; HIPAA/privacy and security of confidential data; accessing medical records; prohibition of discrimination and discriminatory harassment, including sexual harassment and sexual assault, intimate partner violence and stalking; faculty, staff, and student relations; social networking; drug-free workplace; professional attire/dress code; and delinquent medical record procedure.
- Under Professional Activities and Professionalism, documentation pertaining to resident/fellow job descriptions; professionalism; the compact between trainees and their teachers; the code of conduct; resident, fellows, and faculty well-being; work environment; clinical and education work hours rules/procedures; fatigue mitigation; transitions of care/handover; supervision, progressive authority and responsibility of residents/fellows; moonlighting/extra credit; resident/fellow mistreatment; counseling services; the UConn OMBUDS office; and fit for duty/employee assistance evaluations.
- Under Performance Evaluations, policies concerning evaluation and promotion; academic deficiencies review procedures; code of conduct violations/non-academic deficiencies review procedures; and administrative leave.
- Under Employment Guidelines and Procedures, highlights of the program's affirmative action, non-discrimination, and equal opportunity policies; policies for persons with disabilities/accommodations for disabilities; religious accommodations; leave policy/guidelines, including vacation and sick leave; restricted covenant; closures and reductions in programs and program size; and extraordinary circumstances guidelines.
The Resident/Fellow policy manual also has sections outlining its policies regarding staff information, benefits, and support services.
Risks of Violating SFHMC Resident Policies
SFHMC holds its medical residents to the highest standards. The length and breadth of the resident/fellow policy manual makes it clear that violating the program's rules, regulations, or bylaws may be cause for disciplinary action that can impact evaluation and promotion – and, in extreme cases, even lead to non-renewal or outright dismissal from the program. These sorts of disciplinary actions can have significant repercussions on your work in the medical field. You've already surmounted incredible hurdles by graduating from medical school and becoming part of the SFHMC family medicine residency program. You are well on your way to a successful career. That's why, if you are facing a serious policy violation, you must handle it properly. To put it bluntly, charges related to unprofessional conduct, personal misconduct, privacy and security violations, unsanctioned moonlighting, or other policy violations puts your medical residency at SFHMC at risk and, with it, your future medical career. Given how much you have sacrificed to get to this point in your training, it's vital that you protect your investment as well as your future opportunities in the medical field by handling any medical residence issue the right way.
Protective Procedures for SFHMC Residents
Luckily, the University of Connecticut School of Medicine Graduate Medical Education Office commits to providing residents accused of a policy violation with due process before making any decisions about consequences that may impede a resident's ability to complete the program. Due process at SFHMC includes notifying residents of any allegation of policy violation and its subsequent investigation. Residents also have the opportunity to defend themselves against the charges at multiple points during the process.
For example, the investigation of an alleged Code of Conduct violation includes a meeting between the resident, the program director, and other stakeholders to notify them of the allegation and to hear their side of the story. There may also be subsequent meetings before any decision is reached. For example, if SFHMC officials determine a resident should be suspended or dismissed from the program, the resident will have an opportunity to challenge that decision before a program committee. That committee will consist of program officials without conflict of interest who will review the allegation and subsequent investigation into the matter.
If you've been accused of a policy violation, you are likely surprised, scared, or even angry. That's why it's so important, when it comes down to questions regarding your ethics, professionalism, conduct, or progression in the program, to have a trusted advocate by your side to help you defend and defeat the charges.
Finding the Right SFHMC Resident Representation
With so much at stake, retaining a qualified attorney-advisor to help you through the investigatory and hearing process is important. While there are many policies and procedures to protect you in the case of alleged policy violation, it is not always clear how, when, or why to best invoke them. Just because the University of Connecticut School of Medicine Graduate Medical Education Office and SFHMC have strict policies in place does not mean they will always be observed or followed. When you retain medical resident attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento to advocate on your behalf, you can be sure that the SFHMC medical residency program will listen to your side of the story. Attorney-advisor Lento and his premier medical resident defense team will communicate with program officials, answer charges, and help you gather the evidence you need to make your case. He can also appeal decisions, invoke the school's policies for emergency relief, and negotiate alternative consequences through the University's general counsel or other oversight offices. If the worst happens and you must withdraw from your family medicine residency at SFHMC, attorney-advisor Lento will help you do so in a way that won't close the door on opportunities to complete a residency later on.
You've worked hard to get where you are. There's no need to navigate such complex policies and procedures on your own. When you retain premier medical resident attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento, you can be sure you have the professional and experienced help you need to preserve your future medical career. Call 888-535-3686 for help.
