GME Leave Benefits – Graduate Medical Education (GME)

Vacation

Residents/fellows are eligible for 20 days of paid vacation each contract year. Vacation time not used during a given year cannot be carried over to the following year. Requests should be scheduled between the resident/fellow and the program. Vacation requests should be made within the time frame established by the respective program. Vacation time does not accrue. For other restrictions, please consult your program director.

Sick Leave

Sick leave is available to residents/fellows who are absent from work and unable to perform their assigned duties due to personal illness. Each resident/fellow is allowed five paid sick days each contract year. Absences due to sickness or injury must be reported to the program director and chief resident as soon as possible, and prior to the beginning of the shift in question wherever possible. Sick leave may not be used for vacation time. Please see Graduate Medical Education Policy 05, Salary, Vacation, and Sick Days for more information.

Leave of Absence – Medical and Other

For all leaves of absence, a Leave Agreement must be formalized in writing between the resident/fellow and the program director prior to the beginning of the leave. The Leave Agreement form is available on the GME Sharepoint site, Box, or by contacting the GME Office. Copies of the leave agreement should be submitted to the GME Office.

In order to satisfy ACGME or specialty board training requirements, a resident/fellow may be required to extend the training period for any dates of absence in excess of allowable vacation time. Please see Graduate Medical Education Policy 05, Salary, Vacation, and Sick Days and Graduate Medical Education Policy 06, Leave of Absence, for more information.

Personal Leave of Absence

Residents/fellows may request a personal leave of absence through the program director in conjunction with the Office of Graduate Medical Education. Such a request should typically be predicated on unusual and/or extenuating circumstances including, but not limited to, the illness or death of a family member or civil or military obligation. In most cases, a personal leave of absence will not exceed eight weeks. During a given leave, a resident/fellow must first use any available vacation allowance. Once the vacation allowance is exhausted, subsequent leave will be unpaid.

Paid Personal Medical or Caregiver Leave

Residents/fellows are provided one instance of six weeks (30 days) of paid leave (at 100% of pay) for personal medical, including pregnancy, or caregiver (providing care for the medical/health condition of an eligible relative) purposes during each program. In addition, during subsequent years of the same program, residents can utilize 4 weeks per contract year of paid leave (at 100% pay) for personal medical, including pregnancy, purposes. Thereafter, if the resident/fellow has any remaining paid time off (vacation or sick leave), they may use those allowances. For medical leave, once paid time is exhausted and only if applicable and approved by the third-party administrator, the resident/fellow may receive short and then long-term disability benefits according to the benefit levels described above. Benefits are continued during this leave. Please see Graduate Medical Education Policy 05, Salary, Vacation, and Sick Days and Graduate Medical Education Policy 06, Leave of Absence, for more information.

To use medical or caregiver leave, you must file a claim with Sedgwick at 1-855-311-9661 and complete a GME leave agreement, available on the GME Sharepoint site, Box, or by request from the GME office. The GME leave agreement must be submitted in advance to the GME Office.

Paid Parental Leave

Resident/fellows are eligible for up to six weeks of paid leave (at 100% of pay) within a 12-month period from the “event” to care for and bond with their child following a birth, adoption or foster care placement. For the birthing parent, this is in addition to the paid medical leave.

To use paid parental leave, you must file a claim with Sedgwick at 1-855-311-9661 and complete a GME leave agreement, available on the GME Sharepoint site, Box, or by request from the GME office. The GME leave agreement must be submitted in advance to the GME Office. Please refer to the Paid Parental Leave information posted on GME’s SharePoint Site (presentation & recording) in Box, or in MedHub for additional information about requirements and process. We encourage anyone anticipating using Paid Parental Leave to contact GMEOffice@uchicagomedicine.org to schedule a brief conversation about leave planning so that we can answer your questions about the leave process in addition to information you receive through conversations with your program director.

FMLA

It is the policy of UCMC to grant family and medical leave in accordance with the Family and Medical Leave Act of1993. Short-term medical leave runs concurrent with eligible FMLA.

If you are going to be off for more than three calendar days for an FMLA or STD qualifying reason, please request Family Medical Leave (FML)/Short Term Disability (STD):

call Sedgwick at 1-855-311-9661
ask to be put on FML and STD (Short Term Disability)
For short-term disability, you will be told that there is a 14-day waiting period before payments begin. In most cases, your pay will be covered by available GME medical leave pay during this 14 day period, unless you have used all available paid time for the year already. You are required to exhaust GME medical leave and five sick days in that order before STD payments begin.

Bereavement Leave

Bereavement leave is granted at the discretion of the program director. The amount of time off is based on the resident/fellow’s relationship to the deceased.

Civil Leave

When a resident/fellow is selected for jury duty, he or she should notify the program director immediately. Jury duty does not affect continuous stipends or benefits, and resident/fellows retain any check issued by the court for expenses.

Possible Extensions of Training

In order to meet board eligibility requirements or to achieve clinical competency, extensions of training may be required. These determinations are made by the program director in collaboration with the program’s clinical competency committee.