Religious Accommodation Policy

The purpose of this policy is to outline the procedure for meeting a resident request for accommodation for religious beliefs or practices while ensuring that patient care is not compromised.

Upon request, residency training programs are obligated to extend a reasonable accommodation to the resident, unless the program can demonstrate in writing that it cannot reasonably accommodate the request without undue hardship on the conduct of the program’s business.

A.    The following procedure must be followed by each resident requesting an accommodation:

1. The resident must make a request in writing for a specified reasonable accommodation based on his/her religious beliefs or practices.
2. The resident must include written verification from a local cleric stating that the request is valid based on the religious belief or practices of the local congregation.
3. Upon agreement with the Program Director, the resident and Program Director must sign a letter of agreement in which it is stated:

                        a.    The nature of the accommodation.

                        b.    A statement that any didactic training lost during exercise of the accommodation will not be repeated for the requesting resident.

                        c.     If the exercise of the accommodation results in lost clinical training time, it is up to the resident to make it up by agreement with his/her Resident Program Director.

      4. In the event that the Program Director does not agree with the request for accommodation, the resident may appeal to the Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education, whose decision will be final.

B.     The following procedure must be followed by each Resident Program Director upon receipt of a written request for religious accommodation:

1. The Program Director must review the request in a timely manner to determine whether the accommodation can be made.
2. If the Program Director determines that accommodation can reasonably be made without undue hardship on the conduct of the program’s business, the Program Director must prepare and sign a letter of agreement as stated in 3 above.
3. If the Program Director determines that accommodation cannot reasonably be made without undue hardship on the conduct of the program’s business, the Program Director must notify the resident of this determination in writing, with a copy to the Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education.

C.  In the event of an appeal of the Program Director’s decision, the Senior Associate Dean will review each party’s case and make a final determination of the program’s ability to make the accommodation.

Established:  2001
Reviewed by GMEC: October 19, 2021