Fair Dealing
We will always conduct ourselves ethically, honestly, and with integrity-
This means that each member of the campus community
- Exercises honesty and integrity in all dealings
Perspective: A Real World Illustration
A January 2006 Los Angeles Times newspaper article reported on a physician who was accepted into a newly created residency position in radiology at a west coast university medical center the same month his father pledged $250,000 to the radiology department.
The physician was not chosen by the medical center during the regular selection process that determines where most medical school graduates do their residency to become a specialist. University officials said there was no connection between the gift and the physician's admission, that he was well-qualified and that the university followed proper procedures in filling the spot.
The physician's appointment and the timing of his father's donation have raised questions at the university about the appropriateness of the arrangement. The physician is the only resident whose salary is paid out of a fund the radiology chair controls, which is separate from the money his father donated.
The radiology chair said that was because the department needed an additional resident immediately, and this enabled him to pay the salary of about $40,000 annually. The chairman of the medical ethics department at another university said, "In areas of medicine, it's especially important that expertise and merit drive decisions."
Radiology is the second-most difficult residency program to get into in the nation, behind only orthopedic surgery, according to the National Residency Matching Program. An east coast University law professor, who has written about the residency programs for the Journal of the American Medical Assn., agreed: "This seems unethical," she said.
The physician's father is chief of staff at a nearby hospital and teaches in the university's medical school on a volunteer basis. He pledged the gift to the department to honor the head of the radiology department, according to a university spokesperson.
The donation went to a fund for a women's imaging center in the radiology department, which the department head created to help pay for better equipment and staff recruiting. The department head and father denied the donation was given in exchange for the physician's residency position. The department head said he had long wanted to increase the number of residents and finally was able to do so last year.
The father said he began discussing a donation with the department head in early 2004. He said he and the department head discussed his son's desire to join the medical center's residency program but never in connection with the donation. He said he realized the circumstances appeared questionable, but that he never intended to influence the outcome of his son's application -- and noted that he could have made his donation anonymously if he wanted to hide his involvement.
The department head said he interviewed several people for the new residency slot. He said he chose the physician because he agreed to fill a specialty position in ear, nose and throat radiology that the department head wanted to create.
The department head said he created the extra position because he felt his staff was stretched too thin and he wanted to expand the program. But records show the radiology program has not created any additional positions in subsequent years.
The father and department head acknowledged that the physician did not "match" with the medical center through the National Residency Matching Program, a ranking system that pairs medical school graduates with residency programs. More than 90% of applicants secure their residencies through the matching program.
Last Revised 5/23/2006