CME and Professional

Background

This departmental policy is superseded by any hospitalwide policies. Please see the Mount Sinai Health System Travel and Meal Policy for further details on travel and meal reimbursement. Continuing medical education (CME) consists of educational activities that serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that a physician uses to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession. To that end, the Department of Emergency Medicine provides this policy for the use of CME funds utilized by faculty and PAs. Each site will be responsible for administrative oversight, processing, and implementation of this policy. CME funds may be used for approved travel, educational items, dues, licenses, and professional memberships as described below:

Funding

CME expenses are accounted on a calendar year basis; unused funds may not be carried over to the next year. Funds are prorated for faculty or PAs designated as parttime (based on percent FTE) and anyone working less than one year based on sabbaticals, or start/end dates (parental leave or other leaves of absence excluded). Funding amount may vary year to year depending on the department and institutional finances. CME expenses for a calendar year must be claimed in the same year; they cannot be borrowed against the following year’s allotment. For 2022, clinical faculty are allotted $4,500 for the calendar year (January through December), PAs and non-clinical faculty are allotted $3,000 for the calendar year, and fellows are allotted $3,000 for the academic year (July through June). All CME conferences for fellows must be approved by the fellowship director prior to submission in Sinai Central. If a fellow is accepted to present at a pre-approved meeting, they will be allowed to travel. CME funds may be used for licenses, registrations, DEA registration, professional memberships, and subscriptions for educational material, as well as conferences covering emergency medicine topics. Please note, if approval is not received in advance, conferences will be funded by the employee and not through the CME account. If you are not sure if something can be reimbursed, or what your current CME balance is, please confirm before making purchases! Moonlighting dollars cannot be transferred into CME accounts.

Travel

COVID-19 has greatly impacted system-wide travel policies. The most current travel policy can be found here: https://www.mountsinai.org/about/covid19/staffresources/policies When travel restrictions ease, we can resume our prior standing policies and definitions. CME includes all travel that falls within one of these two categories: national travel or foreign travel. National travel is all travel within the United States, Canada, and U.S. possessions and territories. A complete list of all domestic travel areas can be found on the School Travel Policy: Mount Sinai Health System: Travel and Meal Policy, #ACSA.2021a. All other travel is considered foreign; foreign travel is not generally reimbursed unless specifically approved in advance by the site Chair or Chief. Chiefs’ and Chairs’ CME/Professional Expenses above the contracted amount will be approved by the System Chair with money allocated for their professional needs based on departmental priorities and professional development. This will be handled on a case-by-case basis by the System Chair.

To ensure that all of your travel expenses will be reimbursed, the following procedures must be taken.

Travel Request All school travel requests must be submitted for approval in Sinai Central prior to the start of your CME trip. Any travel taken without an online travel request will be denied. Travel requests should be submitted at least two weeks prior to the start of the trip by each faculty member. Please ensure that all proper signatures are obtained. Note that no reimbursement will be provided greater than the amount you submit in your request. Make sure you have provided yourself enough cushion in case expenses are larger than anticipated. Foreign travel requires prior written approval from your chief/chair. All CME conferences for fellows must be approved by the fellowship director prior to submission in Sinai Central. All conferences for PAs must be approved prior to submission. If approval is not received in advance, conferences will be funded by the employee.

Travel Vouchers

Within 60 days of returning from your trip, a travel voucher must be completed by each faculty member in Sinai Central for reimbursement. Travel vouchers must include all scanned original receipts, original ticket stubs or boarding passes, and/or some other proof of payment. For any expenses paid by credit card, Finance requires a copy of that item on an itemized credit card statement. Hotel bills should be itemized.

For example, in order to submit a hotel bill, the itemized hotel receipt plus the hotel charge on your credit card statement must be submitted.

Meal receipts are no longer requested or reimbursed. There is a $70 per diem flat rate for each travel day, which does not require any further documentation.

The following expenses are not reimbursable: • First-class or business-class travel

• Cost incurred for failure to cancel a trip or a reservation • Lost or stolen tickets, cash, or personal property • Expenses not directly related to the purpose of the trip • Travel insurance in excess of that provided by the

Health System • Spa or fitness charges • Minibar charges

For all travel covered by grants, please research ahead of time what is covered and allowable. Federal grants require travel on domestic airlines only. All other travel with other funding sources should follow the travel policy set forth by the Mount Sinai Health System Travel and Meal Policy, #ACS-A.2021a.

Academic Enhancements

Individual CME may be used to subsidize up to $1,500 for article-processing fees for open access journals, as long as the faculty member is first or last author, and the journal is indexed in PubMed.

Attendance is encouraged for oral presentations, or presentations of posters/papers. If you have used all of your CME, these additional meetings will be reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis up to $1,500 per meeting, with approval from your Chief or Chair. Additional CME time will be granted accordingly. Only one faculty member per oral presentation, poster, or paper will be funded to present that piece of work. Faculty will not be funded to present the same work at multiple conferences.

Professional Equipment

Certain items required for professional performance may be purchased using CME funds. These include scrubs, work shoes, white coats, stethoscopes, otoscopes, ophthalmoscopes, protective eyewear, loupes, and webcams. Ultrasound machines may not be purchased using CME funds. Personal protective equipment such as respirators, reusable gowns, PAPRs, and CAPRs cannot be purchased using CME funds. Computers or tablets cannot be purchased with CME funds.