PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE NOTICE!
The purpose of this message is to alert you to procedures surrounding Weather Related Emergencies.

• All house officers must be familiar with Chancellor’s Memorandum-51 “Policy on Weather Related Emergency Procedures for LSUHSC-New Orleans”

http://www.lsuhsc.edu/administration/cm/cm-51.pdf

• All house officers who have cell phones must sign up to receive Text Messages Alerts as soon as possible:

http://www.lsuhsc.edu/alerts/TextEmailAlerts.aspx

• All house officers must monitor their LSUHSC email accounts at least daily and check for Emergency Related Updates on the LSUHSC Homepage:

http://www.lsuhsc.edu/
The GME office will use the LSUHSC email system for all communication. The non-LSU email addresses should only be used in the event the LSUHSC system is not functioning.

If the Chancellor has declared an emergency requiring closure of any unit of the institution then:

• All house officers should monitor local television and radio broadcast for messages related to LSUHSC and the School of Medicine. These modes of communication will be used to inform you of where to report for duty should the school or institution remain closed for an undetermined length of time.

• All house officers are required to update their personal contact information on the LSUHSC-NO registry.   The registry will become available on-line via the LSUHSC-NO website once a state of emergency has been declared by the Chancellor. 

Faculty, staff and students failing to update their contact information on the registry will be subjected to disciplinary action up to and including being charged with an unauthorized absence.

• Adhere to all recommendations and requirements discussed in CM-51.

• Under the direction of your Program Director, all house officers should adhere to any hospital “CODE GREY” procedures. 

• Under the direction of your Program Director, all house officers will report as assigned by their program.  In general and in those cases where assignments cannot be made or cannot be met, all house officers must report to the medical staff office at the nearest public hospital as soon as conditions permit. 

The following should be used in the event there will be a prolonged absence of our operations from New Orleans:

• All house officers must check in daily at the hospital medical staff office.

• All house officers must keep a daily log of the sites they are assigned to and attend.  Their assignments must be turned in to their Program Coordinator and/or department business manager. This information will be forwarded to the GME Office.  RESIDENT PAYROLL WILL BE DETERMINED BY THIS INFORMATION.

• GME Office Administration will relocate and reestablish function at the earliest possible time in a central location most likely on the main campus of LSU in Baton Rouge. The location and further information will be listed on the web site. Communication will begin immediately between the DIO and Program Directors. Weekly or more frequent meetings will be held at a central site to begin working with program directors on relocation of training program rotations and reassignment or transfer of residents where necessary.

• House Officer Payroll is paid by electronic deposit and is done off site therefore there will be no interruption anticipated.

• TRANSFERS - ALL RESIDENTS AND PROGRAM DIRECTORS CONSIDERING RESIDENT TRANSFERS MUST FOLLOW THE BELOW PROCEDURES - In the unlikely event that we are not able to return to New Orleans for an extended period, rotations will need to be set up at other hospitals. The majority of these will be in Baton Rouge and Lafayette as determined by your program director. Only in rare cases will they need to be performed outside Louisiana and that must be prospectively determined by the program director and GME Office. These finite transfers for specific training rotations are called Temporary Transfers. The GME Office must perform certain functions for these to be approved. In rare instances a resident may need to permanently transfer to complete all of their training. These are called Permanent Transfers and are treated quite differently than temporary ones. The resident should review the below policies to understand the difference. For temporary and permanent resident transfers, please have your house officer email you and copy Dr. Charles Hilton (chilto@lsuhsc.edu) (only if that email is not functioning use charleshiltonmd@yahoo.com). The transfer must be in adherence to the Policy Manual for Graduate Medical Education (see below).

Transfers
There are two types of transfers: temporary and permanent. Residents are advised that these two terms are often confused by accepting programs as are the rules regarding temporary transfer of Medicare funding. To protect the resident the following steps should be followed:

• Temporary Transfers – refer to those transfers where the program remains open and needs to assign the resident for a particular educational reason to an in- or out of state facility. These transfers are sanctioned by the program and may or may not involve transfer of funding caps. The significant distinction here is these rotations are not for the duration of the residents training except in some residents in their final year of training and occur because your training program establishes them for specific training experiences. They remain LSUHSC-NO employees and receive paychecks from LSUHSC-NO.

• Permanent Transfers – The institution understands that in severe catastrophes that residents previously in good standing and committed to the program may develop a personal or professional need to transfer out of the program to another program. The institution does not encourage this but understands this need may arise and believes the program and institution should take reasonable steps to help this occur in a timely and smooth fashion. In the case of permanent transfers the resident is leaving their LSU program permanently to complete either all or their current period of training at another institution. These residents are no longer LSUHSC-NO employees and receive no paycheck from LSUHSC-NO. They become employees of the accepting institution. It is important for all parties to recognize that LSUHSC-NO does not “own” residency caps (Medicare) therefore cannot affect transfer of these caps. Residents who permanently transfer do not have funding or caps that transfer with them. In addition, during a complete disaster with parties spread out in different geographic locales and travel difficult there may not be time to physically route a letter. Since time is often of the essence in obtaining a position the institution has adopted the following procedures:
• The resident sends an email to the LSUHSC-NO Program Director requesting permanent transfer to a certain program (named in the email) effective a certain date and include the accepting Program Director and DIO name and contact information and specifically their email addresses. The residents email should indicate the resident has initiated this request and it is not due to any actions on LSUHSC-NO part, that the resident expressly permits the Health Science Center to release information regarding his/her standing in the program and relevant information regarding educational status and the performance of the resident, and the LSU DIO must be copied. 
• The LSUHSC-NO Program Director then writes an email to the accepting Program Director copying the DIO of both institutions and the requesting resident, stating that the LSUHSC-NO program releases the resident and that the resident is at a specified level of training and in good standing in the program and any other relevant information. This email must state that this is a permanent transfer and that no funding or GME caps will transfer with the resident. It should reflect the termination date.
• The accepting Program Director must reply to all of the acceptance and understanding and agreement of the terms outlined in the transfer email.
• Once this is completed the transfer is official and the resident contacts the LSUHSC-NO Residency Program Business Manager or the GME Office for instructions on termination.

**      Please be reminded you only have Louisiana/Mississippi coverage on your pager.  In the event of a weather-related emergency, if you need nationwide coverage, please contact GME Office staff - Stephanie Galendez (sgalen@lsuhsc.edu or sgalendez@yahoo.com) or Ashley Walker (acomea@lsuhsc.edu  or awalk0518@gmail.com).