Residents are to notify the Chief Resident of when they would like to take vacation or educational leave. Requests are taken on a first come, first serve basis and must be turned in before the preliminary schedule for that block is printed.  It is recommended that vacations be dispersed throughout the year. Unused vacation time will not carry over into the next contract year.  NO VACATION TIME MAY BE TAKEN DURING THE LAST TWO WEEKS OR THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR.

All residents are given 15 working days paid vacation time. Vacations may be taken according to the following schedule:

CHMC Vacation Allowed

OB Vacation Allowed (only 1 resident/month)

Surgery Vacation Allowed (only 2 residents/year)

ER Vacation Allowed

FP Service No Vacation

Second Year

FP Service 5 week days/year

Madigan/Mary Bridge 5 week days/year

C-Section Vacation Allowed

Outpatient Surgery Vacation Allowed

Planned Parenthood Vacation Allowed (no vacation in 1st week of rotation)

Community Medicine Vacation Allowed

Geriatrics/Behav Science Vacation Allowed

Vacation allowed except on FP Service.

Vacation may be applied for by filling out written vacation application forms to gain approval from the family medicine chief resident. Applications will be processed on a first come, first serve basis and must be placed at least 8 weeks in advance of the block in which the vacation occurs. Educational leave is applied for in a similar way. Please be advised that R-1s may only take vacation time during their Continuity Clinic month, OB, Pediatrics, and ER rotations. No vacation will be approved in the first two weeks of Block 1. Unused vacation or CME time can not be carried over into the following year.

Residents should anticipate that not everyone can take vacation during holiday periods. Vacation applications should not be counted on until the resident receives a written response from both chiefs. Team partners can not go on vacation at the same time. Residents are responsible for signing out active patients to their partners, leaving an OB sign out and notifying their team nurse of an upcoming vacation.

One of the objectives of the residency is to develop in residents an approach to life-long learning (CME) that will serve the needs of a changing specialty. Educational leave is provided as a method of exploring this objective. Time away from the residency is provided on each year level.

1. In the first year, the objective is to acquaint residents with local CME offerings. Attendance at daylong Swedish Hospital symposia, King County Academy of Family Physicians CME, and other local hospital programs are suggested.

2. In the second year, partial reimbursement of expenses is provided. Two or three day programs in one's special interest, not covered in depth in the residency curriculum, are recommended. Programs in sports medicine, NALS, adolescent medicine, occupational medicine, or procedural workshops might be the types of courses selected.

3. In the third year, the objective is to introduce residents to a national meeting, such as the annual AAFP Assembly, the STFM, the National Rural Health Conference, the Washington Academy of Family Physicians meeting, or other state meetings. Understanding what one can learn in the national meeting or a review course is the goal. PALS, ACLS, and ALSO are required additional courses provided by the program. ATLS can also be elected in the R-3 year.

4. Selection of a course: Most CME programs are offered on an annual basis, so, if a fellow resident has gone to a noteworthy course, it's likely it will be given the following year at the same time. Some courses are predictably of high quality every year, but their selection should be based on your special learning interest or needs.

To plan ahead for CME, there are advance meeting notices in journals, such as the WAFP Journal and American Family Physician. However, the most extensive listings can be found in the Physicians Travel and Meeting Guide. This is available as a monthly publication in the Swedish library and gives listings 2-6 months ahead of issue publication date.  Also, you can visit the CME page, which lists previous meetings attended by residents, faculty, and fellows.

Educational leave is granted on the basis indicated below, with the following time and expenses allowed:

• R-1 3 working days no money

• R-2 5 working days $500

• R-3 5 working days $750

*R-1s are subject to call schedule responsibilities during their educational leave time and, therefore, may not leave town to attend a conference.

CME Monies Policy

ALL CME and travel (including airfare, hotel, rental car, registration, etc)  will need to be pre-approved by the employee's manager (Mike Tuggy), director (Sandy Norris), and VP (Nancy Auer).  The travel pre-approval forms are in the mailroom in the cupboards above the microwave and attached to this email.  After you complete the form and attach a conference brochure, please give to Joleen to obtain signatures.  After it is approved, Joleen will let you know so you can make your travel arrangements through the SMC travel vendor, Carlson Wagonlit Travel.  It usually takes about 2-3 weeks to get all signatures, plus you need to  allow enough time to get your travel plans made through the corporate agent.  SMC will not pay registration or any travel fees until the approval forms have been signed and returned.  All travel, including hotel, air, and car rental,  must go through our corporate travel vendor - no exceptions will be granted.  If you find a lower rate elsewhere, please let Brenda know and she can match that fare.  In addition, Brenda can also take care of your conference registration.  Meals, transportation to and from the airport, and incidentals are reimbursable, with a receipt, upon return (reimbursement form is attached).  Again, SMC will not reimburse individuals for travel (air, hotel, car rental) that is not pre-approved and/or purchased through Brenda and will not submit payment until it has been pre-approved.  Documentation of attendance and expense receipts for professional meetings are required for reimbursement.

Contact Information for Carlson Wagonlit Travel:

Brenda Bacon, Senior Travel Consultant
email: brendab@cwtlynn.com
phone: (425) 742-4057 or 1-800-456-0140
fax: (425) 348-5017

Sick Leave Policy

(Maternity leave, illness, injury and complications of pregnancy)

As Swedish employees, all residents must use the leave policies of Swedish Medical Center as a basis for planning any leave of absence.  Sick leave may accumulate at the rate of one day per month of full employment. In case of sickness (as enumerated above), you are to be seen by your personal physician and notify the program coordinator of your absence. If the physician so recommends that you be excused from duty, you should present this recommendation to the Chief Resident who will work out the details of this excuse and be responsible for documenting time off. Your physician is also responsible for recommending when you may return to duty. If the duration of your excused illness exceeds your accumulated paid sick leave, you will not be paid for days missed unless these days are taken as vacation. If you do not have vacation time, the program director may request you to extend your residency by the amount of time lost due to illness.

A leave of absence taken by a resident has significant academic impact on the resident and the residency as a whole. The academic program relies on clinical experience while on call and in clinic for learning. All call nights that are missed on leave of absence will be made up when the resident returns to their clinical duties. Due to the continuity requirements, any leave of absence in a given year requires notification and approval by the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) . If the leave of absence is greater than 3 months, it will likely require restarting the program at the beginning of the R-2 year unless an exemption is given by the ABFM for hardship.  Any LOA for non-maternity reasons must be approved by the Director and the ABFM, and would only be allowed for significant hardship.

Residents who take extra call or extra clinic duties due to other's absences may request substitutions of call or clinic days from the Program Coordinator and Chief Residents, who will assign make-up call or clinic days to the returning resident who was on leave. These substituted days can only be used for the purpose of having elective clinical experiences for such residents to make up lost experiences during the time they were covering for those on leave. 

Maternity leave can  be for a maximum of 12 weeks.  During this leave, the resident must first use her sick leave that she has accrued and may use 1 week of vacation time. As sick leave is paid leave, the days are counted contiguously. After that, an unpaid LOA is allowed up to the point that the resident has been off a total of 12 weeks.  There residents graduation date is adjusted forward by the number of sick days taken and the days of unpaid LOA.  Vacation days taken are not made up.

Paternity leaves is taken as unpaid personal leave and may be up to six weeks in duration.  One week of paid vacation is allowed in addition to this leave time.  This leave also extends the date of program ending by the number of unpaid days of leave taken contiguously.

Residents may not select a Swedish FP resident or faculty for their own or their family's medical care.

Residents may not accept gratuities or fees from patients for personal services provided as part of residency training. Funds from fees generated in the Family Medicine Clinic will be collected as part of operating revenues of the Clinic and training program.

The Residency Program does not encourage moonlighting; however, no restrictions will be placed on Residents' off-duty activities as long as such activities do not interfere with obligations at the Hospital and Residency as defined in the Resident's Manual. The Residency malpractice insurance does not cover moonlighting activities, regardless of its educational merits. Residents cannot use hopital DEA numbers. Only R-3s have full unrestricted medical licenses.  All moonlighting must be approved by the program director and not violate ACGME duty hour requirements.