The Ombuds Program - Reporting Mistreatment
The Ombuds Committee at Einstein is a group of individuals committed to providing an informal, impartial, open-minded and supportive ear for Einstein students and postdocs to voice and be heard with respect to their concerns and complaints about their learning environment and interactions with their teachers, the clinical and laboratory staff.
Einstein Ombuds Mission Statement
Our overall mission is to provide informal, impartial, open-minded, supportive, confidential, independent, fair and safe support to all learners in the Einstein/Montefiore community.
- Informal – we are not mediators and are a supplement to formal channels of complaint
- Impartial – we do not make judgments or assign blame
- Open-minded – we hear all complaints and concerns without judgment
- Supportive – we are empathetic listeners with an interest in promoting student well-being
- Confidential – we do not require names or a record of an individual’s complaint. Anonymity is maintained except if there is a concern for imminent danger to the visitor or others in our community, or instances when the complaint is sex-based discrimination or harassment (see Title IX).
- Independent - we are independent of the Medical school and Hospital administration except for general neutral reporting to the Deans
- Fair – we provide the same support to all types of complaints and concerns and help all users of the Ombuds process to explore options for potential remediation
- Safe – we do not reveal names or circumstances that violate anonymity whenever possible and do not keep discoverable records
Reporting Mistreatment or Bias Incident
We realize that despite our best efforts, some instances of perceived and/or real student mistreatment will occur. To address these issues, we have created an Ombuds panel to confidentially investigate any allegations of student and postdoc mistreatment. The ombuds panel consists of four thoughtful and caring senior faculty members.
Students and postdocs who submit reports to the Ombuds panel should feel safe that their complaints are confidential without risk of retaliation.
If you feel you have been mistreated by any person at any time, please complete a Ombuds Complaint Form. Following submission of the form the following will happen:
- You will be contacted by a Co-Chair of the Ombuds panel to arrange a meeting to discuss the incident. You are welcome to bring a companion to this meeting for support.
- If after this meeting, if you wish to further pursue the complaint, the Ombuds panel will investigate the allegations by speaking with other students, course or clerkship directors, members of a laboratory, residency directors, and possibly other sources as appropriate. Generally the committee will not directly approach the alleged perpetrator. The timing of this step is entirely up to you.
- The Ombuds Co-Chair will then speak with supervisor of the alleged perpetrator In cases when the alleged perpetrator is the Chairperson, the Ombuds Co-Chair will speak with the Executive Dean. If the alleged perpetrator is another student, the panel will report to the Office of Student Affairs or the Graduate Office, as well.
- Within two weeks of being approached by the Ombuds Co-Chair, the supervisor will address the issue with the alleged perpetrator or his/her supervisor.
- To ensure that the process is comfortable and without fear of repercussion for the student, this procedure can be modified in accordance with the student’s preferences through discussion with the Ombuds panel.
- On an annual basis, the Ombuds panel will submit a report to the Office of Student Affairs, Office of Medical Education, Graduate Office and the Office of the Executive Dean summarizing the previous year’s cases; Prior to presentation, these data will be aggregated and de-identified to ensure the anonymity of students submitting a complaint.
