The purpose of this policy is to provide guidelines for sick occurrences and extended periods of time off work for medical or other reasons.

The sick time deposited into a resident’s “sick bank” at the beginning of the contract year should be used to provide a resident with continued income if the employee personally becomes sick or injured. Sick time is not to be used when taking time off for other instances such as: to care for ailing family members, family emergencies, or time lost for travel.

Aultman recognizes that during your employment, you may need to take an extended period of time off from work (generally four or more calendar days) for medical or other reasons. Each resident may be eligible to take a leave of absence for medical, parental, and caregiver leave(s) of absence consistent with applicable laws at least once and at any time during an ACGME-accredited program, starting the first day the resident/fellow is required to report.

At the beginning of the academic year, each resident will be allotted 40 hours (five days) of non-accrued sick days and 140 hours (17.5) days of non-accrued LOA hours.

Sick Days: This time is to be used to provide continued income if/when the resident becomes sick or injured. Sick time will encompass five work days at full pay.

Each instance a resident calls off sick is considered an “occurrence.” An occurrence can consist of one day, or multiple days. To be considered one occurrence, the multiple days must be concurrent. A Friday and Monday are NOT considered concurrent. The program Coordinator/Administrator will track the number of occurrences that each resident takes. Excessive absenteeism is part of the professionalism competency and will be considered part of the longitudinal evaluation. Sick days taken due to a qualifying disability under the law or under FMLA will not be considered an occurrence.

Generally, sick days taken abutting a weekend, vacation, conference or holiday will be deducted from vacation time, not sick time.

The Program Director may require a meeting to discuss sick occurrences. After the third occurrence, the resident must meet with the Program Director upon returning to work. If the Program Director feels that the number of occurrences is excessive, he/she has the discretion to assign extra make-up duties or other corrective measures. Programs may have additional requirements in their program policies.

LOA: This time is to be used to provide continued income when the resident is on a qualifying leave of absence. If the qualifying LOA is due to the resident’s own illness or maternity leave, then sick time from the sick days balance will be automatically used first. Residents will then have an additional 12 working days at full pay and 11 working days at half pay. The other half days can be no pay or vacation at the discretion of the resident. If the qualifying LOA is due to paternity leave or caregiver LOA, the resident’s vacation time will be used and the sick time cannot be used in accordance with the institutional policies. The rest of the time off will be unpaid. Residents must reserve one week of vacation time for use outside of the approved LOA. *The first qualifying approved LOA during residency/fellowship may be granted up to an additional 100 hours of LOA in order to ensure the first six weeks are paid at 100% of their salary.

The above LOA pay sources follows the ACGME statement that Sponsoring Institutions may use vacation and other pay sources to provide paid time off during leaves of absence, provided that doing so is consistent with institutional policy and applicable laws, and that one week of paid time off is reserved for use outside of the first six weeks of leave and making sure that the resident is paid 100% of their salary for the first six weeks of their first qualifying LOA.

To apply for a leave, the resident must contact his/her Program Director and the Administrative Director of Medical Education (ADME). From that point, the ADME will instruct the resident to submit the LOA request through the Aultman Portal and work with Human Resources and the resident to complete the paperwork requirements. The Office of Graduate Medical Education follows the Aultman Health Foundation guidelines, the Federal Family Medical Leave Act, and ACGME requirements for leaves of absence.

More detailed information about Basic and Active Duty FMLA, Military Caregiver, Intermittent, and Military leaves may be found in the Aultman Health Foundation Leave of Absence policy. A copy may be obtained from either the office of the Administrative Director of Medical Education or Aultman Hospital Human Resources. This policy is to be used in conjunction with specific residency program leave policies.

Notice of Need for FMLA Leave

If the leave is foreseeable (including birth or placement of a child, planned medical care, leave due to active duty of immediate family member, etc.), the resident must provide at least thirty (30) days advance notice to their manager. If circumstances prevent providing the thirty (30) days advance notice, then the resident should provide notice to their Program Director/ADME as soon as practicable after learning of the need for leave (normally within two business days). For an extension of requested leave, the resident must inform the Program Director/ADME of the qualifying reason for the extension as soon as practicable after learning of the need for the extension (normally within two business days). The resident must make every reasonable effort to schedule medical treatments so as not to disrupt the ongoing operations of their department.

If a resident fails to give the required notice for foreseeable leave with no reasonable excuse, the resident may be denied the taking of the leave until the resident provides adequate notice of need for the leave.

Health care benefits and disability insurance benefits will remain in effect for the resident and their family for any approved leave. Arrangement for payment of dental premiums must be made. If a resident does not return from FMLA Leave, COBRA will be triggered when FMLA Leave ceases for any reason.

NOTE: Sick time and extended LOAs may affect the necessary requirement for fulfillment of board certification that is set by the specialty board and may impact the time required to complete the program. Residents may be required to make up any educational experiences that were missed due to a leave of absence.

During orientation for new residents, and again annually, Program Directors shall present information to their trainees concerning the specialty-specific Board requirements related to the effects of leave on the ability to complete the program as planned. This shall also be included in the program-specific handbook. At the time an extended leave is requested (i.e. maternity), the Program Director shall discuss implications of the planned time off.