Is there a national organization that holds residency programs accountable?

[ClearEyesFullHeart]

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Hi all--

I had a major issue with my residency program director that ended with me being forced to resign (it was said in multiple meetings with my GME director that there would be no dismissal/termination since there were "no disciplinary actions" raised against me.) I'll spare all the details on this thread but feel free to refer to the actual issues here:

Contract Non-Renwal due to FFD Testing (Desperate need for guidance)

Hi-- I am reaching out today after months of uncertainties and ultimately running out of any resources/outlets to provide any advice or guidance. I will try my best to keep this short but feel free to ask about any missing info/details as I don't have any intentions to hide anything. I am an...

forums.studentdoctor.net

Anyways, it has now been many months and basically I was told that not only would my contract not be renewed due to "patient safety" concerns, but that I would have to resign effective immediately after my leave/vacation days were used up on May 1st (rather than honoring my contract until June 30th.) There was absolutely NO due process: I was told that I would not be given the opportunity for any formal remediation due to "patient safety" concerns. I was then going to appeal these decisions through the standardized GME Appeals process but my Program Director advised that it would be in my best interest to NOT appeal to the GME because "even if I won the appeal," his argument of patient safety would trump any decision made by the GME.

Is there a national organization that oversees issues similar to this where the very basic steps of due process were taken away from a resident? I understand that ACGME doesn't participate in specific resident issues with their programs but is there an entity that oversees the lack of ACGME-based guidelines?

At this point, my position at this program has ended and I am applying elsewhere so I am not looking to get anything out of this. But, out of principle, I want to be able to report this issue since something must be changed.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Not really. The ACGME is the group that oversees GME programs. But they specifically do not get into the details of residents who are being fired. If your program had some major systemic problem and wasn't delivering a good education (chronic duty hour violations, too much or too little ICU, etc) then the ACGME would be interested. Whether or not you got "due process" they will not get into.

There's always the courts.

This whole story is somewhat bonkers. If you cannot be remediated, they should have just fired you because you can't do the job. If you appeal to GME and they overturn this decision, they will need to keep you (but they might just pay you and not have you do any clinical work). If you do decide to take this to court, you usually must exhaust all internal appeal options and hence must file an internal appeal -- however there is usually an exception if it's clear the appeal is a sham (which you might be able to claim) -- in any case this is something to review with a lawyer now if that's the path you plan to go down.

Getting a new spot after a story like this is going to be difficult.

 

[Goro]

EDIT: FYI:

Contract Non-Renwal due to FFD Testing (Desperate need for guidance)

Hi-- I am reaching out today after months of uncertainties and ultimately running out of any resources/outlets to provide any advice or guidance. I will try my best to keep this short but feel free to ask about any missing info/details as I don't have any intentions to hide anything. I am an...

forums.studentdoctor.net