Policy on Resident Transfers

For both intramural and other institution’s program’s residents

It is recognized that residents may change their career plans during their residency. When such changes occur, residents are expected to honor the full year of commitment to their originally chosen residency program. In addition, as soon as a resident is very seriously considering changing training programs, he or she should notify their current Program Director so that the maximum possible lead-time is allowed for that program's planning and recruitment. Program Directors who have agreed to accept into their programs current residents from other SUNY-Downstate residencies should also respect the concept that commitments should be honored for the full year. Only if both the affected Program Directors agree should a different timetable be used. Program Directors should not actively seek to recruit residents from other SUNY Downstate programs to their residency. However, when there is reason to believe that there is mutual interest, exploratory contact may be appropriate. Residents considering a career change should feel free to obtain advice and counsel from any faculty member. If and when such discussions move to consideration of action regarding career change, early notification of the current Program Director is strongly recommended; preferably, both the involved resident, AND the discussant/confidante/advisor should contact the home Program Director. Any SUNY-Downstate Program Director considering acceptance of a transferring resident from another program should inform the home Program Director in a timely fashion, irrespective of when the proposed change is to take place. All reasonable efforts should be made to honor prior commitments fully. All discussions and communications beyond the exploratory stage should be documented, including written approval between the two Program Directors if a transfer is made. If agreement cannot be reached between the two Program Directors, an ad hoc committee of two Program directors and one resident will be formed to decide the issue. However, if resident chooses to not renew his/her appointment to the program, the ad hoc committee is unwarranted and the resident is eligible to transfer to or join any other program.

Whenever a resident is a candidate for transfer from one program to another, particularly within the same specialty between different institutions, the receiving program must obtain written verification and documentation of the satisfactory standing of the resident and competency based evaluations of the resident’s performance from the prior training program before agreeing to accept the resident as a transfer. This information must be retained as part of the resident’s training record.

Approved by GMEC 4/11/2001
Revisions approved by GMEC 6/16/10