Stipends and Fringe Benefits
Contracts are issued through Baylor College of Medicine for all training programs, and the College manages stipend packages. Residents are appointed at stipend levels reflecting their years of prior training creditable toward board certification in their current specialty. These annual stipend amounts which are increased annually for 2008-2009:
| Level | Amount |
|
Level I |
$42,810 |
|
Level II |
$43.746 |
|
Level III |
$44,929 |
|
Level IV |
$46,744 |
|
Level V |
$49,024 |
|
Level VI |
$50,613 |
|
Level VII |
$52,321 |
|
Level VIII |
$53,623 |
House staff are provided with medical, dental, life, and accidental death & dismemberment insurance with premiums paid by the program. In the event a house officer becomes seriously ill or sustains an injury requiring absence from work for more than six months, long-term disability insurance is provided at no cost to house staff. In addition, house staff may enroll in Baylor's short-term disability plan at their own expense.
Medical coverage is provided through the ResidentCare medical plan. The ResidentCare network includes physicians from several practice organizations and a full complement of services offered through affiliated hospitals. Coverage for inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care is included in the medical plan. In addition, there is a house staff psychiatric counseling service, staffed by Baylor faculty, which offers up to twelve free sessions to house staff and their spouses or significant others.
Through Baylor's Self-Insurance Program, house staff receive free professional liability insurance coverage in limits that exceed $1 million per occurrence and $3 million in the aggregate. With occurrence coverage, the Program will respond to a claim after the house officer leaves Baylor as long as the claim is based on treatment rendered during the formal training experience.
House staff at Postgraduate Levels II and above are entitled to three weeks annual vacation, while residents at Level I receive two weeks. All house staff have available to them two weeks of paid sick leave and three days of paid personal leave each year. Unused sick leave can be carried forward and used in subsequent years. House staff may be eligible to take sick leave, paternity leave, and unpaid leave of absence under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Educational (professional) leave is granted by the individual programs according to policies established by each department.
Parking is available to residents within and around the Texas Medical Center. The affiliated hospitals provide on-call sleeping rooms and free meals for on-call residents. House staff also are eligible for membership in the Baylor Credit Union. In addition, house staff can save for retirement and reduce their current tax liability by participating in the College's Tax Deferred Investment Plan.
Administration
The Baylor Office of Graduate Medical Education, the central administrative office for the Affiliated Hospitals Residency Program, coordinates and implements policies and procedures defined by the Graduate Medical Education Committee. This committee-composed of representatives from the faculty and the house staff; is responsible for the general administration of the post-graduate training programs. The senior associate dean for Graduate Medical Education oversees all activities related to graduate medical education.
The Policy on House Staff Physicians describes the rights, responsibilities, and benefits accorded to residents, and changes to that document are approved by the Graduate Medical Education Committee. Subcommittees of the GMEC monitor various components of the GME program, including duty hours and core competencies, with the majority of these groups including representatives of the house staff.
All Baylor program appointments are administered through the GME office.
Residents need not hold a Texas medical license to train in the Baylor program, but those who do not must apply to the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners www.tsbme.state.tx.us for a physicians-in-training permit. Information on the permit is provided upon appointment to a Baylor training program. Applicants must also pass credentialing, including a criminal background check, as conducted by Baylor College of Medicine.
Application
All applicants for first-year positions who have had no previous residency training should seek appointment through the National Resident Matching Program, in accordance with the current rules of that program. For more information on NRMP, visit www.nrmp.org. Non-U.S. citizen graduates of foreign medical schools must obtain visa sponsorship through the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.
Applicants interested in any program should contact the appropriate Baylor residency program director for further information.
For information on particular training programs, visit the BCM Graduate Medical Education web site. Links from this site are available to the web page of every Baylor clinical department, as well as to information about housing, education, and other aspects of life in Houston.