Discounted memberships are available to McGaw residents and fellows at Holmes Place Health Club located at 355 E. Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611, which is close to the downtown campus. Additional information concerning this benefit as well as application forms can be obtained at http://www.univsvcs.northwestern.edu/fitness/index.html. Please note that the payroll deduction option for membership dues is not available to McGaw residents and fellows. Thus, a check for a full year's dues at the discounted rate should be submitted to University Services with your application. In addition, housestaff members have access to the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion, Norris Aquatics Center, and Combe Tennis Center (SPAC) located at 2379 Sheridan Road on the University’s Evanston campus. For information on the SPAC please call 847/491-4300. A valid Wildcard is needed for admission. Annual membership fee is $215 plus a $100 annual registration fee and is good for admission to either facility.

Call the Information Technology Information Center at 847/467-4877 for more information.  Discounted software may be purchased on the Chicago campus at the University bookstore on the first floor of Abbott Hall (312/503-8486).

The Housestaff Assistance Program is a free service which provides confidential, professional help for housestaff and their family members who need assistance with personal problems. Housestaff are provided evaluation, counseling, and referral for a range of problems including workplace issues, family and marital discord, emotional problems, substance abuse, legal and financial problems, elder and child care, and other personal and professional concerns. If referral to a treatment program is made, insurance coverage will be considered. Housestaff may access this service by calling 630/932-8008 or 800/456-6327.

Any of the permissible leaves of absence listed below, if excessive, may lead to the necessity to extend training beyond the final year in order to make up training time. Most specialty certifying boards have limits on the duration of absence from training that may not be exceeded if the individual is to be eligible to sit for the certifying examination. Even if there is no certifying board restriction regarding the duration of absence, a housestaff member may be required to extend training if total leave for any reason in any one training year exceeds that allotted to vacation, education, and sick leave. During the extension of training, the housestaff member will receive a stipend and benefits except that vacation time will not accrue. If training is extended to make up for time spent on short-term disability, the stipend provided during training extention will be at the PGY level during which short-term disability was taken.

Housestaff members in the second or any subsequent year of training with assignments of at least nine months to a McGaw hospital may attend one educational meeting per year. This opportunity is conditional upon satisfactory performance as judged by the program director. The choice of educational meeting must be made in consultation with and with the approval of the program director, and the duration of absence must not impact patient care.

The meeting must be located within the continental United States. Absence should not extend beyond the dates of the educational meeting and necessary travel time. Additional days must be considered vacation time, and the total time should not exceed one calendar week. Full stipends and benefits are provided during educational meetings.

Each housestaff member is allowed 10 days of paid sick leave per appointment year.  The use of sick days is for the sickness or injury of the McGaw housestaff member only, not for use as additional vacation days or for caring for sick or injured family members.  All absences due to sickness or injury should be reported to the program director.  Any injury or illness incurred as a result of activities directly related to the training assignment should be reported promptly to Payroll and Benefits at 888-449-0016 or mcgawpayroll@ey.com  so that a workers' compensation report may be filed.  Disabling injury or illness extending beyond 10 days is covered by disability insurance and/or workers' compensation.  Sick leave does not accrue from one year to the next year.

For a routine birth, a mother is entitled to six weeks off after delivery. For leave time, she first must use any remaining sick time for the year, up to 10 days; the balance of the six weeks will be made up with short-term disability benefits providing 80 percent of the usual stipend. If her physician does not release her to return to work after six weeks, she remains on short-term disability until her physician certifies that she is capable of returning to duty. If time off is necessary before delivery, again sick leave is used first and, if short-term disability coverage then is required, a physician’s certification is necessary.

If her physician releases her to return to work after six weeks but she wishes to extend the leave further, she must first use any remaining vacation time for the year and then request leave of absence without stipend (see Family and Medical Leave).

A housestaff member may choose to use vacation time instead of short-term disability for maternity leave if she wishes to receive 100 percent of her stipend, but the duration is limited to vacation time remaining for the year.

The GME office must be notified in advance of an anticipated birth or adoption date, and the actual date conveyed promptly, so that benefits for the infant may be initiated. A "Request for Family and Medical Leave" form must be completed and approved by the Program Director.  The form and additional information regarding maternity leave is provided by McGaw Payroll and Benefits at https://fsmweb.northwestern.edu/gme_services/benefits_view/Benefits_Menu.cfm,
including notification requirments.

When a housestaff member is selected for jury duty, he or she should notify the GME office.  Jury duty cannot be counted as vacation.  If the jury duty pay is less than the ordinary stipend, the difference will be paid.

Housestaff members receiving McGaw stipend checks are granted a leave of absence of up to 30 days per year for regularly scheduled military training. Military leave cannot be counted as vacation time. If the military pay is less than the usual stipend, the housestaff member will be paid the difference. If the military pay is equal to or greater than the McGaw stipend, no check will be issued for the time of military training. Housestaff members should inform the GME office of the dates of military training in advance. In the event of a civil or national crisis exceeding 30 days, the housestaff member will be placed on a leave of absence without pay. He or she will be eligible for all rights and benefits provided by federal and state laws.

The Galter Health Sciences Library’s mission is to support the research, education, and patient care activities of the Feinberg School of Medicine and McGaw institutions. The library provides services and resources to meet the needs of the faculty, residents, students and staff.
The Galter Library strives to be a leader in the development of electronic information access through innovation and service. The Galter Library Web site can be accessed at: http://www.galter.northwestern.edu. The library’s most recent accomplishment is the creation of the Health SmartLibrary (HSL). Residents can use the HSL to:

• Access full-text journals and books from any location

• View and customize their specialty or personal profiles (surgery, AIDS, etc.)

• Quickly search library resources by keyword

• Organize Web sites in a personal file cabinet

• Register for library classes

• Request and access Interlibrary Loans (ILL) and photocopies

The Galter Library is the one-stop source for all the databases, journals, books, and Web sites that residents will need during their time at McGaw. Highlights of the library’s collection include:

• 200 databases, including MEDLINE, Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews, PsycINFO, EMBASE Drugs & Pharmacology, and Web of Science

• over 3000 electronic journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Nature, Science, Lancet, and British Medical Journal

• more than 200 electronic books including Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, Sabiston Textbook of Surgery, Griffith’s 5 Minute Clinical Consult, and the titles available in MD Consult, Stat!Ref, and Books@Ovid

• links to NUcat, the Northwestern University online catalog; HealthWeb, a collection of the best health Web sites; and numerous online reference tools such as directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, fact books, health news services, and search engines

The HSL is accessible from the McGaw hospitals, home, office, lab, or on the road—wherever a resident can make a connection to the Internet. Users register for the HSL with the bar code on their WildCARD or a library-issued bar code. Please contact the Reference Desk of the Galter Library at 312/503-8109 for further information.

The Galter Library Education Team, supports the educational and training needs of all residents and fellows. Residents can take classes on improving their MEDLINE searching skills, searching for evidence-based reviews, presentation and poster creation, using EndNote for managing citations and more. The Team is also available to assist individuals with literature searches, reading list updates, core competencies support, resource recommendations, and more. Contact Linda O’Dwyer, Clinical Education Librarian at l-odwyer@northwestern.edu or (312) 503-8128 for any questions about using the library and its resources. Alternatively, contact the Team at galter-ed@northwestern.edu or 312/503-8109.

Although much of the library’s collection is available online, there is still a vast collection of books and print journals available at the physical library. The library is located at 303 E. Chicago Avenue on the first floor of the Ward building. Valid McGaw or Northwestern University identification is required as the library is not open to the public. Your WildCARD or library-issued bar code can be used to check out books and journals. The physical facility operates Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Changes in this schedule are posted in advance. James Shedlock, AMLS, is the library director. He and the staff welcome suggestions about how to improve the quality of library services and collections. The library may be reached at 312/503-8126.

Loan deferements are certified on the basis of internship/residency status as required by law.  All loan deferment forms are signed by the GME Office.  Processing time for loan deferments is at least 48 hours, and one-week turnaround time is typical during the busy season of June-August.  Call 312/503-7975.

When assigned to overnight call, housestaff members will be provided comfortable sleeping facilities.  In addition, support for meals while on call is provided; the level of support vaires by the institution at which call is taken.

Housestaff may use the services of the Print Shop, located in the Searle Building basement on the Chicago campus, for their personal printing needs.  However, any publication that uses the school seal/logo or implies official endorsement by the Feinberg School of Medicine or its administration must have prior approval by the Office of Publications and Public Relations, Ward 1-144, phone 312/503-8618

Although the practice of religious beliefs, including the observance of religious holidays, is important to many trainees, top priority must be given to maintaining adequate patient care. Whenever possible, schedules will be changed to accommodate a housestaff member’s religious beliefs. Any such adjustments are contingent, however, upon acceptable patient care coverage alternatives and must be cleared with the appropriate training program director.

Each program determines housestaff assignments for patient care during holidays.   These assignments should be a shared responsibility among all housestaff in the program. The stipend is earned for the holiday regardless of whether or not the housestaff member has been scheduled to work on that day.

Shuttle services is provided by Children's Memorial Hospital between the Children's campus and the downtown campus.  Information on the schedule is provided at the following link:

www.northwestern.edu/uservices/docs/transportation/cmh.pdf. 

There is a $2 fee in exact change for each ride.  Housestaff rotating at Children's may ride the shuttle for free by showing their CMH identification badge.  If the housestaff member rides the shuttle on the first day of a rotation before obtaining a CMH identification badge, the fee may be reimbursed.