Introduction

This site is designed to assist personnel at WWAMI clinical clerkship sites who've been given the job of figuring out the business end of the clerkship program. I hear there's funding for my clinic, you say to yourself, but I have no idea how to get it or who to ask about it. And someone said something about setting up housing for the students? What does that mean to me? Becoming part of the University of Washington School of Medicine's WWAMI clinical education program can be overwhelming if you are not used to interacting with a large bureaucracy or a state government entity. But most of the steps you'll have to take will only have to be taken once, and they've all been successfully taken by 160+ clinical clerkship sites before you. Don't panic! (If you don't want to read the detailed background information about the WWAMI clinical education program, you can jump directly to the Quick-Start Guide here)

Some Background

The term "clinical clerkship site" is used here to mean a clinical location that provides clinical learning experiences and facilities for School of Medicine’s students who are enrolled in its medical education program and who are participating in the required third year clerkship rotations in Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Obstetrics & Gynecology, or Surgery; and/or the required fourth year clerkship rotations in Neurology, Chronic Care or Emergency Medicine. Clinical clerkship sites are provided an administrative fee to help offset costs associated with administrative overhead, potential decrease in patient volume, and expenses related to the education of the student such as text books, pagers, and computer supplies. The site may utilize the funds in any manner that supports the costs associated with hosting a medical student. The funds are considered by the state as reimbursement of education expenses, not salaries and therefore, there will be no income tax liability connected with the funds. Clinical clerkship sites that provide medical student housing are reimbursed for actual costs of lodging students. Each such site arranges and maintains furnished housing for medical students. Housing costs may include expenses beyond rent, such as utilities, phone, internet /DSL service, cleaning of housing between student rotations, and upkeep, etc. Provided housing should be similar to what students could expect to receive if they stayed in the dorms on a college campus, offering adequate connectivity and privacy to study and sleep and should be clean. Household items should be of Target or Walmart quality.

WE'RE A NEW CLERKSHIP SITE! WHAT DO I DO NOW?

There are two major items connected with becoming a WWAMI Clinical clerkship site that are handled through the School of Medicine's ofice of Academic Affairs: affiliation agreements and clerkship funding. Someone at your clinical site must take action regarding each of these items. AFFILIATION AGREEMENTS (You can refer to the detailed information below, or you can jump to the Quick-Start Guide here) The University of Washington School of Medicine enters into affiliation agreements to meet the accreditation standards set by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). The pertinent text of LCME Standard ER-9, covering affiliation agreements, is as follows: There must be written and signed affiliation agreements between the medical school and its clinical affiliates that define, at a minimum, the responsibilities of each party related to the educational program for medical students. Written agreements are necessary with hospitals that are used regularly as inpatient sites for core clinical clerkships. Additionally, affiliation agreements may be warranted with other clinical sites that have a significant role in the clinical education program. The School of Medicine interprets both “core clinical clerkships” and “a significant role in the clinical education program” to mean those clinical experiences that are graduation requirements for our students. An affiliation agreement defines the relationships and respective roles between the School of Medicine, the clinical clerkship site or medical institution and the student. The student’s presence within a hospital or medical institution requires that medical education guidelines are followed and student documentation is present. The affiliation agreement governs the student’s activities and dictates that those actions must be consistent with clinical clerkship site bylaws and medical staff rules & regulations. Before any student clinical rotations can begin, there must be an affiliation agreement exectuted between the clinical clerkship site and the School of Medicine. CLERKSHIP FUNDING (You can refer to the detailed information below, or you can jump to the Quick-Start Guide here) The University of Washington is an entity of the State of Washington, and as such is required to follow Washington State policies regarding payment of funds. Clinical clerkship sites have the status of sub-contractors relative to the School of Medicine. What does that mean to you? It means that the only way the School of Medicine can give the clerkship funding to you is for your site to invoice the University of Washington. Without an invoice from you, we can't give you any money. Before we can write you a check, the State of Washington requires that you jump through a few official hoops: 1. Register as a vendor with the State of Washington (You can read a step-by-step guide to filling out the registration form here.) 2. Register to receive electronic payment from the University 3. Receive a Purchase Order from the University of Washington Once you have the Purchase Order from us, you can 4. Invoice the University of Washington, referencing your Purchase Order number, and then 5. Receive payment! These may seem like a lot of steps, but because all payments for the University of Washington are processed by our central Purchasing Office, and because the Purchasing Office pays tens of thousands of invoices each year and has no idea who or what our clinical clerkship sites are, they must follow their procedures for due diligence and assure that they're paying only invoices they are supposed to pay. Which means that your invoices must contain the following: 1. Your business name and address, which must match the name and address on file with the UW Purchasing Office. This is the name and address you used when you registered as a vendor with the State of Washington. If your business/billing name or address changes, you will need to fill out the vendor registration form again to allow us to update our files and pay your invoice. 2. The Purchase Order number you'll receive from us. The Purchase Order will be tied to the name/address on file that you have given us when you registered as a vendor. Your invoice, the Washington State vendor file, and the Purchase Order information all must match or the Purchasing Office will not pay the invoice, and you will not get your clerkship funding. This is the only way the UW has of assuring that funds are being paid out correctly.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT CLINICAL CLERKSHIP FUNDING

What are the components of a clinical clerkship budget? Administrative Costs: Administrative fee of $500/week/student. Funds may be used to offset or supplement the compensation of faculty and staff, or to purchase student texts, computer equipment, software, etc., and any other items or effort required for the instruction of the medical student. Housing: Each site directly arranges and maintains housing for medical students. Sites are reimbursed actual housing costs. This funding may be invoiced in advance. Housing costs may also include utilities, phone, internet service, DSL connections, pager, cleaning of housing between student rotations, etc. Travel: For site faculty travel to Seattle for departmental meetings concerning the student clerkship program. Faculty must seek reimbursement from the clinical site. The UW will in turn pay the clinical site the costs of actual travel expenses, which must be itemized and submitted through the usual invoicing procedure. The UW will not directly reimburse site faculty for travel. Other: For unusual one-time purchases or first year start-up costs. Start-up costs include items such as utility hook-up charges, furniture, bedding, towels and dishes. (hide answer) How much is the administrative fee? The administrative fee is $500/week/student. For a four-week rotation, that comes to $2,000/student. For a six-week rotation, that comes to $3,000/student. Funds may be used to offset or supplement the compensation of faculty and staff, or to purchase student texts, computer equipment, software, etc., and any other items or effort required for the instruction of the medical student. (hide answer) How is the housing funding determined? The housing funding is figured on a site-by-site basis, as every rental market is unique. Sites are tasked with obtaining and furnishing local housing including utilities, consumable items and management of student keys, etc. The School of Medicine will reimburse clinical sites dollar-for-dollar all student housing expenses. The amount spent each year for housing is used as an estimate for the following year's costs when creating the Purchase Orders. (hide answer) How is the travel funding determined? Travel funding is set up for new sites based on the costs of similar sites in that state. The assumption is that clinical faculty will travel to Seattle for one or more quarterly faculty development meetings, though the frequency of meetings varies depending upon the University department hosting the meetings. The amount spent each year for faculty travel is used as an estimate for the following year's costs when creating the Purchase Orders. (hide answer) What are "other" funds? "Other" funds are for unusual or one-time purchases, or first year start-up costs for new sites. Start-up costs include such items as utility hook-up charges, furniture, bedding, towels and dishes. One-time purchases are such items as replacement of appliances owned by the clinical site, upgrades of internet routers and modems, etc. Please contact the Office of Academic Affairs in Seattle before making any of these purchases. (hide answer) What can we use the money for? Clinical sites may utilize the funds in any manner that supports the costs associated with hosting a medical student. (hide answer) Do clinical clerkship sites pay for student travel costs? No, clinical clerkship sites are not expected to pay any student travel costs. The School of Medicine is in contact with all students in clinical rotations and has made arrangements to pay for student travel. If a student comes to you for reimbursement of travel expenses, refer the student to the School of Medicine Office of Student Affairs for guidance. (hide answer) How long does it take to get the funds once I invoice? All invoices submitted to the University of Washington are paid by the University's central Purchasing Office. The Purchasing Office is an independant entity and their workload can vary greatly during the year. Clinical clerkship funding invoices usually are paid within two weeks, but it can take up to 30 days. If you have submitted an invoice and have not received payment within 30 days, contact the Office of Academic Affairs in Seattle and we will resolve whatever the problem is and get your money to you. (hide answer) Can the School of Medicine provide a sample invoice? Yes, we can. Download an Excel invoice template here. (hide answer) Can the School of Medicine arrange and pay directly for student housing? Why do I have to do that? The School of Medicine does not directly rent clinical clerkship student housing for two reasons: first, our central administrative office is in Seattle, and if there is any problem at all with the housing, we are a long way away from the landlords and the property; it's very inefficient for us to try to manage lodging hundreds of miles from here. Second, in order for the School of Medicine to directly lease property, the University Real Estate office must get involved, and their rules make it difficult for the School to rent any space that won't be occupied by UW staff. There are the above-mentioned management issues, as well as liability issues with no UW staff actually on site. We realize that it's more work on the part of our clinical partners to provide student housing, but the administrative funding that comes along with the students is intended to offset your staff effort for this very sort of thing. (hide answer) What happens if the rent or the utility costs go up for the student lodging? As long as the rent increase is reasonable, you can just invoice us for whatever the actual amount is. Please send us a copy of the notice from the landlord showing the rent increase for our records. If the rent increase is unreasonable, please find a different location to lodge our students. We can provide additional money for the costs of transporting furniture, etc. (hide answer) I want to take one of the clerkship students to a conference. Will the School of Medicine pay for that? It's always great when students have educational or career-guiding opportunities in addition to the clinical curriculum, but the School of Medicine doesn't have funds to support travel to conferences during student rotations. Possibly some of the administrative funds we provide can be used to pay for things like this, but each year we spend every penny we're given on the basic components of the clinical program and nothing is left over for additional activities. (hide answer) Why is there no funding available for clinical elective rotations? The required clinical clerkships are funded by a separate mechanism from the elective clinical clerkships, and the funding we receive to support the required clerkships is not enough to pay any of the costs of the elective program. If you have specific funding requests related to expenses for elective clinical clerkships, you should talk to the sponsoring clinical department within the University School of Medicine. (hide answer) Who do I contact if I have more questions or if there's a problem? You can contact the clerkship coordinator from the department within the University who sponsors your clinical clerkship. You can contact your state WWAMI Regional Affairs office. You can contact the Office of Academic Affairs for the School of Medicine in Seattle: Flannery Ellis Fiscal Specialist II wamifund@uw.edu 206-543-1547 Scott Bailey Assistant Director sgbailey@uw.edu 206-685-7022 (hide answer)