Resident Vendor Interaction Policy

I.    Scope

This standard was developed for SIU Medicine. SIU Medicine collectively applies to the SIU School of Medicine (SIU SOM), including the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), and SIU HealthCare (SIU HC). These entities are collectively referred to as SIU in this document.

This document applies to residents as defined in this policy.

II.    Definitions 

The term “resident” is inclusive of all trainees at SIU SOM, whether training in a residency or fellowship program.  The term “program” is inclusive of all SIU residency or fellowship programs, whether accredited or non-accredited.

III.    Procedure

This policy is to provide guidance to ensure that interactions between vendor representatives / corporations, residents, and each ACGME-accredited program are productive, positive, and ethical.

1. Faculty may not involve residents in vendor sponsored research outside of SIU Medicine or in faculty start-up companies without approval from the SIUSOM Office of Compliance.
2. Resident interactions with vendor representatives and corporations on campus should occur only for educational purposes, comply with applicable SIU Medicine policies, and must be supervised by faculty.  Vendors are prohibited from directly communicating with residents without faculty supervision.

3. Vendor sponsored scholarships and other educational funding for travel to conferences is permitted when approved by the Program Director.  The preferred method for this funding assistance is for the vendor to book the travel directly on behalf of the resident (i.e. conference registration, airline ticket, hotel room, etc.).  

   Residents employed by an affiliated hospital must obtain approval for any vendor-sponsored scholarships and other educational funding from the employing hospital or their designee according to the policies and procedures of the hospital.  These requests must be reviewed and approved in advance via the following steps:

   1. Program director must review the request and approve only if the activity is of educational value and presents no conflict of interest associated with the funding.
   2. Program director must submit a description of the educational program or a program brochure and an approval request letter (see template) to the designated individual in the chart below.  The information submitted must contain the topic/title of event, dates, and location. 

   3. Employing Hospital	Submit Request To:
      Alton Memorial Hospital	Jennifer Rodgers, OGME
      Springfield Memorial Hospital	Jennifer Rodgers, OGME
      HSHS St. John's Hospital	Dr. Ashish Tokhi, HSHS  ashish.tokhi@hshs.org cc: Bonnie Pearce, Bonnie.Pearce@HSHS.ORG
      Southern Illinois Healthcare	April Holmes-Peters, SIH Director of Compliance April.holmes-peters@sih.net
      Decatur Memorial Hospital	Jennifer Rodgers, OGME
      Blessing Hospital	Jennifer Rodgers, OGME

4. Vendor sponsored meals must be accompanied by an educational event or have faculty present.  These must be approved by the Program Director in advance. The resident will request approval via email to the Program Director and required approval will occur via response to that email.  Vendor sponsored gifts are prohibited with the exception of hospitals, health systems, or government agencies (i.e. VA, military, etc.) for the purposes of recruitment for future healthcare employment.