Northwestern
McGaw Center for Graduate Medical Education
Housestaff Manual
Counseling & Psychological Services
Hospital Addendums
Northwestern Memorial Hospital
McGaw Payroll/Benefits
The documentation regarding flexible benefits for health, dental, and life/dismemberment insurance and for long-term disability, workers' compensation, and pretax spending accounts are transmitted to housestaff members by mail, including information on initial enrollment as well as periodic open enrollment. This information can also be accessed from the GME web page at gme.northwestern.edu. Direct questions about benefits may be sent to mcgawpayroll@ey.com or call 1-888-449-0016. Note that trainees who are supported by certain federally funded grants may be required to comply with federal guidelines on benefits, including leaves of absence. These trainees should have a discussion with their program director about the details.
Feinberg School of Medicine Alumni Relations Programs
The Office of Alumni Relations at FSM works with McGaw to encourage housestaff to get to know each other and Chicago better so that they may be more comfortable during their tenure at McGaw. Annual seminars are offered as well as gift passes to local restaurants and places of interest. In addition, the Office of Alumni Relations at FSM provides a small congratulatory gift to each housestaff member at the conclusion of his or her program and upon the birth of a child.
Housestaff members have access to the exercise facilities in Lake Shore Center, 850 North Lake Shore Drive, on the Chicago campus of Northwestern University. These facilities include a swimming pool, a gymnasium, racquetball and squash courts, and a sundeck. Call 312/503-0866 for hours. In addition, housestaff members have access to the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion, Norris Aquatics Center, and Combe Tennis Center (SPAC) located at 2379 Sheridan Road on the University’s Evanston campus. For information on the SPAC please call 847/491-4300. A valid Wildcard is needed for admission. Annual membership fee is $215 plus a $100 annual registration fee and is good for admission to either facility.
Housestaff may purchase computers at a discount through the “Virtual Store” found on Northwestern University’s web site at www.virtualstore.northwestern.edu. Call the Information Technology Information Center at 847/467-4877 for more information. Discounted software may be purchased on the Chicago campus at the University’s bookstore on the first floor of Abbott Hall (312/503-8486).
Counseling and Psychological Services
The Housestaff Assistance Program is a free service which provides confidential, professional help for housestaff and their family members who need assistance with personal problems. Housestaff are provided evaluation, counseling, and referral for a range of problems including workplace issues, family and marital discord, emotional problems, substance abuse, legal and financial problems, elder and child care, and other personal and professional concerns. If referral to a treatment program is made, insurance coverage will be considered. Housestaff may access this service by calling 630/932-8008 or 800/456-6327.
Any of the permissible leaves of absence discussed below, if excessive, may lead to the necessity to extend training beyond the final year in order to make up training time. Most specialty certifying boards have limits on the duration of absence from training that may not be exceeded if the individual is to be eligible to sit for the certifying examination. Even if there is no certifying board restriction regarding the duration of absence, a housestaff member may be required to extend training if total leave for any reason, in any one training year, exceeds that allotted to vacation, education, and sick leave and if the program director judges that this has resulted in the housestaff missing essential training. During the extension of training, the housestaff member will receive a stipend and benefits except that vacation time will not accrue. If training is extended to make up for time spent on short-term disability, the stipend provided during training extension will be at the PGY level during which short-term disability was taken.
All housestaff members receive three weeks of vacation with stipend per year. Vacation should be taken in segments of not less than seven consecutive calendar days. Vacation time cannot be accrued and carried over to the following year of training. Vacations should be scheduled and approved by the program director; any changes also must be approved by the program director.
Terminal vacations, that is, a week of vacation taken at the conclusion of one’s program in order to hasten the date of program completion, require the written approval of the program director and notification of the GME office.
Housestaff members in the second or any subsequent year of training with assignments of at least nine months to a McGaw member hospital may attend one educational meeting per year. This opportunity is conditional upon satisfactory performance as judged by the program director. The choice of educational meeting must be made in consultation with, and with the approval of, the program director, and the duration of absence must not impact patient care. The meeting must be located within the continental United States. Absence should not extend beyond the dates of the educational meeting and necessary travel time. Additional days must be considered vacation time, and the total time should not exceed one calendar week. Full stipends and benefits are provided during educational meetings.
Each housestaff member is allowed 10 days of paid sick leave per appointment year. All absences due to sickness or injury should be reported to the program director. Any injury or illness incurred as a result of activities directly related to the training assignment should be reported promptly so that a workers’ compensation report may be filed. Disabling injury or illness extending beyond 10 days is covered by disability insurance and/or workers’ compensation. Sick leave does not accrue from one year to the next.
For a routine birth, a mother is entitled to six weeks off after delivery. For leave time, she first must use any remaining sick time for the year, up to 10 days; the balance of the six weeks will be made up with short-term disability benefits providing 80 percent of the usual stipend. If her physician does not release her to return to work after six weeks, she remains on short-term disability until her physician certifies that she is capable of returning to duty. If time off is necessary before delivery, again sick leave is used first and, if short-term disability coverage then is required, a physician’s certification is necessary. If her physician releases her to return to work after six weeks but she wishes to extend the leave further, she must first use any remaining vacation time for the year and then request leave of absence without stipend (see Leave of Absence for Other Reasons).
A housestaff member may choose to use vacation time instead of short-term disability for maternity leave if she wishes to receive 100 percent of her stipend, but the duration is limited to vacation time remaining for the year.
The same guidelines apply for a woman adopting a baby, with the exception that certification by a physician is not needed.
The GME office must be notified in advance of an anticipated birth or adoption date, and the actual date conveyed promptly, so that benefits for the infant may be initiated.
When a housestaff member is selected for jury duty, he or she should notify the GME office. Time spent on jury duty is not counted as vacation. If the jury duty pay is less than the ordinary stipend, the difference will be paid.
Housestaff members receiving McGaw stipend checks are granted a leave of absence of up to 30 days per year for regularly scheduled military training. Military leave is not counted as vacation time. If the military pay is less than the usual stipend, the housestaff member will be paid the difference. If the military pay is equal to or greater than the McGaw stipend, no check will be issued for the time of military training. Housestaff members should inform the GME office of the dates of military training in advance. In the event of a civil or national crisis exceeding 30 days, the housestaff member will be placed on a leave of absence without pay. He or she will be eligible for all rights and benefits provided by federal and state laws.
Leave of Absence for Other Reasons
A leave of absence may be requested of the program director. Such a request should be predicated on an unusual and substantial personal situation such as the birth or adoption of a child, family illness or death. The housestaff member must first use any remaining vacation time for the year up to three weeks. This vacation time must be drawn from the current year’s allotment, not from a prior or future year. Subsequent leave time will be designated as leave of absence without stipend. The housestaff member may be required to extend his or her training period to make up leave time. During an unpaid leave of absence, the housestaff member must pay for health and dental benefit coverage if continuation is desired.
Assistance with legal questions regarding a housestaff member’s provision of clinical services may be obtained through the general counsel or risk management at each McGaw affiliated hospital The telephone numbers of these offices follow.Children’s Memorial Hospital: 773/880-4204
Evanston Hospital: 847/570-2094
Northwestern Memorial Hospital: 312/926-2900
Northwestern University: 847/491-5605
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago: 312/238-6208
VA Lakeside: 312/943-6600, ext. 53201
The Galter Health Sciences Library’s mission is to support the research, education, and patient care activities of the Feinberg School of Medicine and McGaw institutions. The library provides services and resources to meet the needs of the faculty, residents, students and staff.
The Galter Library strives to be a leader in the development of electronic information access through innovation and service. The Galter Library Web site can be accessed at: http://www.galter.northwestern.edu. The library’s most recent accomplishment is the creation of the Health SmartLibrary (HSL). Residents can use the HSL to:
- Access full-text journals and books from any location
- View and customize their specialty or personal profiles (surgery, AIDS, etc.)
- Quickly search library resources by keyword
- Organize Web sites in a personal file cabinet
- Register for library classes
- Request and access Interlibrary Loans (ILL) and photocopies
The Galter Library is the one-stop source for all the databases, journals, books, and Web sites that residents will need during their time at McGaw. Highlights of the library’s collection include:
- 200 databases, including MEDLINE, Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews, PsycINFO, EMBASE Drugs & Pharmacology, and Web of Science
- over 3000 electronic journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Nature, Science, Lancet, and British Medical Journal
- more than 200 electronic books including Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, Sabiston Textbook of Surgery, Griffith’s 5 Minute Clinical Consult, and the titles available in MD Consult, Stat!Ref, and Books@Ovid
- links to NUcat, the Northwestern University online catalog; HealthWeb, a collection of the best health Web sites; and numerous online reference tools such as directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, fact books, health news services, and search engines
The HSL is accessible from the McGaw hospitals, home, office, lab, or on the road—wherever a resident can make a connection to the Internet. Users register for the HSL with the bar code on their WildCARD or a library-issued bar code. Please contact the Reference Desk of the Galter Library at 312/503-8109 for further information.
The Galter Library Education Team, supports the educational and training needs of all residents and fellows. Residents can take classes on improving their MEDLINE searching skills, searching for evidence-based reviews, presentation and poster creation, using EndNote for managing citations and more. The Team is also available to assist individuals with literature searches, reading list updates, core competencies support, resource recommendations, and more. Contact Linda O’Dwyer, Clinical Education Librarian at l-odwyer@northwestern.edu or (312) 503-8128 for any questions about using the library and its resources. Alternatively, contact the Team at galter-ed@northwestern.edu or 312/503-8109.
Although much of the library’s collection is available online, there is still a vast collection of books and print journals available at the physical library. The library is located at 303 E. Chicago Avenue on the first floor of the Ward building. Valid McGaw or Northwestern University identification is required as the library is not open to the public. Your WildCARD or library-issued bar code can be used to check out books and journals. The physical facility operates Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Changes in this schedule are posted in advance. James Shedlock, AMLS, is the library director. He and the staff welcome suggestions about how to improve the quality of library services and collections. The library may be reached at 312/503-8126.
Loan deferments are certified on the basis of internship/residency status as required by law. All loan deferment forms are signed in the GME office. Processing time for loan deferments is at least 48 hours, and a one-week turnaround time is typical during the busy season of June–August. Call 312/503-7975.
When assigned to overnight call, housestaff members will be provided comfortable sleeping facilities. In addition, support for meals while on call is provided; the level of support varies by the institution at which call is taken.
Housestaff may use the services of the Print Shop, located in the Searle Building basement on the Chicago campus, for their personal printing needs. However, any publication that uses the school seal/logo or implies official endorsement by the Feinberg School of Medicine or its administration must have prior approval by the Office of Publications and Public Relations, Ward 1-144, phone 312/503-8618.
Professional Liability Insurance
Each McGaw hospital is self-insured for professional liability risk. Housestaff members, along with all hospital employees and students, are included in these programs. Coverage continues after completion of training for any activities that took place during and within the scope of the training program. These programs provide for the defense in court of any housestaff member who is named as a defendant. The insurance also will pay for damages that are awarded against a housestaff member up to the policy maximum. This insurance coverage does not apply to claims based on activities of a housestaff member that are outside the scope of his or her rotation at the assigned hospital. Other conditions may affect coverage. Direct any questions about coverage to the director of risk management at the assigned hospital:
Children’s Memorial Hospital: 773/880-4204
Evanston Hospital: 847/570-2012
Northwestern Memorial Hospital: 312/926-9880
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago: 312/238-6208
VA Lakeside: 312/943-6600, ext. 53201Rotations to hospitals outside the McGaw affiliated institutions must be approved in advance to ensure that comparable coverage is provided.
Although the practice of religious beliefs, including the observance of religious holidays, is important to many trainees, top priority must be given to maintaining adequate patient care. Whenever possible, schedules will be changed to accommodate a housestaff member’s religious beliefs. Any such adjustments are contingent, however, upon acceptable patient care coverage alternatives and must be cleared with the appropriate training program director.
Each program determines housestaff assignments for patient care during holidays. There is no additional stipend or compensatory time off for holiday assignments. These assignments should be a shared responsibility among all housestaff in the program.
Short-term disability covers sick time exceeding 10 days. Compensation is provided at 80 percent of stipend for up to 90 days. Should the entire 90 days of benefits be used up during one or more extended illnesses, disability time can accumulate again at the rate of one month for each full year of service completed after returning to work. Additional disability time cannot be accumulated until the entire original 90-day period is exhausted.
University Services operates shuttle service between the Chicago campus, Children’s Memorial Hospital, and St. Joseph Hospital. Buses operate periodically between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Housestaff members rotating between these hospitals are eligible for free shuttle passes through the GME office. However, housestaff members wishing to use the service for transportation to and from their homes are required to purchase individual ride passes at $1 each or unlimited ride passes at $30 per month. Passes may be purchased by calling 312/503-8129. Please see www.univsvcs.northwestern.edu/shuttles/information.html for the shuttle schedule.The University also operates various other shuttles, such as inter-campus, train station, remote parking, Evanston, etc. For more information and shuttle schedules, please see www.univsvcs.northwestern.edu/shuttles/information.html
At the beginning of his or her training period, each housestaff member is provided with two to three white lab coats, depending upon the length of their training . These are to be used throughout training at McGaw. Accordingly, all housestaff members should take their coats with them to each hospital rotation and assignment.
WildCardNorthwestern University’s multiple purpose one-card program, WildCard was developed to provide better identification for members of the University community, simplify use of existing services, control access, reduce handling of cash, and enhance security. Housestaff are eligible to receive a WildCard and are strongly encouraged to obtain one. All housestaff with parking privileges on the Chicago campus are required to obtain a WildCard. Valid WildCards are required for access to the University’s athletic facilities, many of the Galter Library services, participating merchant discounts, and discounts to University sponsored athletic and entertainment events. A WildCard may be obtained from either WildCard office: Abbott Hall Room 100 on the Chicago campus, or Norris Center Underground on the Evanston campus.