I'm tired of filling out forms

[yaah]

Anybody else (rhetorical question) getting reams of forms from your soon-to-be residency program? I simply cannot believe the amount of stuff I have to fill out, and most of it seems to be repeating things. Why can't all the departments that need my information (social security, med school, etc) share this information? Have the lawyers so corrupted everything on behalf of privacy rights that I now must spend the better part of a week writing the same things on forms for many different departments? Most of the forms simply required my name, social security number, and signature. Ever heard of inter-office communication?

Here's the thing: ERAS has all my information. Social security, school of attendance, transcript, LORs, address, phone #, board scores, picture, proof of residence, etc. Why can't residency programs/hospitals just use this information? I would gladly use my "electronic signature" to be able to send this information to my residency program to be used to give to all the deparments at the hospital/medical center to use. Do I really need a notarized form that says I am who I say I am, and do I really need to go to the registrar AGAIN and have them "prove" that I am going to graduate in June? Pain in the butt. Do you really need to ask me if I have ever been sued? Figure it out yourself!

I blame 1) lawyers, and 2) the paranoid people who force the lawyers to get involved. If someone is going to steal my identity they are going to manage to do it anyway, not because the office of graduate medical education and the human resources office had to work from separate copies of the same form. Curses! A pox on these forms! I didn't grow up in this great electronic age in order to tape passport photos to forms, then have them notarized.

And stop asking me for my address! I am going to be moving to a location near the hospital I will be working at a few weeks before the residency program starts. My address is obviously going to change. What's the point of me telling you my address now?!?

End of rant.

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[BigBopper]

Wait till you get out into practice. Hospital credentialling, insurance, medicare ect. The amount of paperwork you are doing now will seem miniscule

 

[Kalel]

I just sent in my forms a couple of days ago. I agree, they are very confusing, plus the whole repetitively asking for my phone number, address, and pager number was really annoying because by the time that I start there, those numbers will be useless. Just be sure that you bring your envelope to the post office to be mailed if it's a big envelope. I was planning on just sticking a 37 cent stamp onto my envelope, but I brought it to the post office just to be sure, and since it was a big envelope, they charged me 89 cents to mail it in regular mail. It'd be a shame for things not to go through just because of the post office problems.

 

[southerndoc]

I took mine to the Post Office as well. Glad I did.

I think I had like 20 forms in mine. Most were simply -- just a sign here and print your name here. Others were long (new hire form, insurance application, life insurance beneficiary information, etc.).