Do You Have Rights as a Medical Resident When Facing a Disciplinary Action?

Before you successfully get into med school, you need to complete a rigorous undergraduate program and apply to some medical school programs. When accepted, you spend stressful years in medical school that can get worse when you deal with medical residency issues and face disciplinary actions for poor academic performance, negligence, or professional misconduct. Sadly, any flaws on your record can negatively affect your position and damage your reputation when you apply for residencies. But keep in mind that you have due process rights under the law and that your school may not dismiss you based on arbitrary or capricious decisions. 

As a medical resident, you can face disciplinary actions due to some reasons. Depending on the circumstances of your behavior, the action may be according to one infraction or some infractions including administrative notice, verbal and written warning, probation, suspension, and termination. 

Facing a Disciplinary Action: Know Your Rights

If disciplinary action is being pursued by your department chair or program director against you, you probably don’t know what to do. But you have rights you should protect during the fight. Residency programs must ensure they don’t produce incompetent doctors. As a result, they have significant discretion when it comes to disciplinary actions.  You can be evaluated for not having enough medical knowledge even if you had acceptable scores on your interim exams. 

While appealing the disciplinary action does not require a formal hearing with attorneys present, you don’t need to struggle through this process alone. You can consult with an attorney at any stage of the process. Often, before disciplinary actions are taken by medical programs, they have informal intervention processes, formal remediation processes, and probation processes. There has to be a process by which you must show progress and obtain feedback. Without such documented clarity, your supervisor may wait for you to see them for regular reporting. In this case, you will have to wait for instructions on when such meetings are scheduled. 

Why You Should Act Fast

If you have been the subject of disciplinary action, you must think about hiring an attorney sooner than later. First, you must gather your documents such as resident contracts, procedure manuals, program policies, and notice of disciplinary action. Also, you need your clinical evaluations, interim exam results, and correspondence with your supervisor about your performance. After you get notice of disciplinary action, you may only have a few days to request a due process hearing. Therefore, you should act fast.