Welcome to Geisinger! GME Virtual Orientation Session

Okay. You may receive a notification letting you know that the session is being recorded and transcribed. We will get started. So the first thing that we want to highlight is how to send questions to us. So our email is [email protected]. So if you have questions, that's the email that we're asking you to send. During the onboarding process, you might find other emails because we do have other emails in Geisinger GME, but we ask that you stick to the GME orientation inbox because we do have a team of individuals that answer questions there. So it helps

us to streamline the process and get more questions answered more quickly. But one thing to keep in mind is that we are also hybrid workers. So we do work from home as well as in the office. So email is going to always be the best way to reach us. If you have any urgent questions, you should always reach out to your program administrator first and they're able to contact us via Teams urgently, especially for those days when we work from home. So please always go through your program administrator for urgent questions first and then they

will get ahold of us quickly. So the email process, when you're sending us an email, We're onboarding a lot of different programs and there are programs that have different requirements from other programs. So the quickest way to get a response from us is going to include your program name in the email when you send it. That helps us determine what set of requirements we're looking at so we could better answer your question. The other thing, if it's possible, please include your program administrator in the email. That way they know that we responded to your question

and how we answered it. I know in some cases when you're sending an email, you can copy in your program administrator and it'll send the email separately to us and then a separate email to the program administrator instead of copying them in on the original email. If that's the case, if that's how your emails come through, we ask you not to do that. I'd prefer you not to copy in your program administrator then, because what happens is it sends two separate emails and then you have two separate individuals trying to respond to your question, which

is our third bullet of please don't send duplicate emails to your program administrator and the GME orientation inbox. For the GME orientation inbox, we do ask that you allow up to three business days for a response. Depending on where we are in onboarding, that may take less time. And questions and answers. So you're going to receive a lot of information from us during onboarding. I know, especially if you get those long emails and you have clinical responsibilities or other responsibilities to your family and otherwise, it's hard to read through all of that information, Which I

totally understand. I'm human, I get it. I skim emails, I miss things, but I'm going to ask that you please save those emails then. You save that information that you have for later. So when you are going through your onboarding process and you've come up to a task that requires something that you're not sure how to proceed with, you could go back to that information that we already sent you, whether it's the email, our FAQ page, the onboarding instructions, because nine times out of 10, the questions that we receive to our inbox is included in

the instructions. And then the easiest and quickest way to get a response is going to be first reaching out to your program administrator. So that is what we ask of everyone onboarding with us. Please reach out to your program administrator first. If they're unable to answer the question, then of course come to us. I wanted to highlight some upcoming virtual orientation sessions. So on April 3rd, we'll have a visa session. So this session is going to be for J1 visas and H1B visas. So what that process looks like, what the responsibilities of everyone involved, and

then we'll have some individuals that are on the call that can help answer questions. The next session is a newer session. This is the first year we're doing it. So it's a visas Q&A on settling In. So this is really anyone, especially coming from abroad. If you are coming from outside of the country and moving to the United States, this is the session you want to attend. We will have a lot of individuals there to help answer questions, again, around settling into the community here. And then we will also have two new virtual orientation sessions

around Epic support. So May 1st is going to be about ambulatory Epic, and then June 5th will be about inpatient Epic. So the first thing that you're going to see come into your inbox is going to be your onboarding package. This is going to come from MedHub as an email. It'll look similar, not exact to the email here on your screen. It's going to be sent to the email that we have on file. So if you received our welcome email on Friday, there's no worries. That's where you'll get this email. If you did not receive

our welcome email on Friday and you're here through some other source, just please reach out to your program administrator and make sure they have the correct email address listed in MedHub because that is the email that your onboarding package will go to. The onboarding checklist will include a list of tasks that you will have to complete prior to starting orientation, and I will go through what those items may or may not be, what you will see. Again, every program's different requirements differ by program and By individual. The welcome email will also include a link to

our onboarding and orientation website. So after you get that onboarding package, there's a couple more emails to look out for. You're going to get an email from [email protected] with a code for your PA Department of Human Services clearance report. And I will go through later in this presentation a little more information about the clearances, but for the PA Department of Human Services clearance, that is an employee clearance. Geisinger provides you with a code that covers the $25 registration fee for that clearance. So you will get that by March 27th. If we can send it out

sooner, we will. So just keep an eye out for that email. Later, you'll receive emails from Certiphi. These are for two other clearances that you're required to complete for employment, which is your general background check and your child abuse clearance. So those email addresses are there. And then the last email will be a notification from us letting you know that we initiated your PA training license. That is for programs that require a PA training license. And if you're unsure if you require a PA training license, that is out on our onboarding and orientation website as

well. Important deadlines. So our very first deadline is going to be this Friday. Again, you're going to receive your onboarding package on Wednesday. So you will have three days to complete your dynamic form, sign your contract or your resident agreement, and then anyone that requires a J1 visa, we ask that you have those documents uploaded by Friday as well if possible. That helps us get started on that process quicker. The dynamic form is just going to be your application, which later I will go through a couple of your tasks that you have to do for

onboarding, but just so you're not panicked about having a deadline so soon, three days after you receive your onboarding package, the dynamic form is just an application. It's general information that you should already have on hand like, "Where did you go to medical school? What is your social security number?" Questions like that. So those three items should be easy for you to get done within three days, but they also hold up everything else for us to proceed with your training license, with your clearance, with your visa documents, which are the three main reasons why we

see delays. So it's very important that you get those three things in as soon as possible. The next deadline is going to be April 13th. That is for your Certiphi packages, which those are the emails you'll get that is going to be for your general background check, submitting the application for that, and submitting the application for your child abuse Clearance. Next is central line course pre-work, having that done by April 13th and uploading your BLS by April 13th. All other items on your onboarding checklist will be due May 15th. Okay. So here is a long

list of items that you may see on your onboarding package. Again, some of the items are dependent on the individual or the program. So I'm going to quickly read through each of these. So you have your goal dynamic form, which is that application that I told you about already, your resident agreement, which is your contract. You have two sections for employee health requirements. You have visa requirements depending on if you're J1, H1B, or uploading, a copy of your green card or EAD documentation. You have a section specific for license and credentialing, your medical license, and

then your child abuse and opioid CE training. So child abuse training and opioid training is required online module trainings for your PA training license. They are not to be confused with your child abuse clearance. It's a separate thing. So your child abuse clearance is an actual clearance, whereas your child abuse training is a training module online required for your PA training license. And then the big thing I want to highlight is your NPI number. Your NPI number, everyone has to have an NPI Number. In order for us to provide access to Epic, which is our

electronic medical records, everyone has to have an NPI number. So if you're a pharmacy, you have to have an NPI number. If you're clinical psychology, you have to have an NPI number. Regardless of whether or not you have to obtain a license, a training license, an unrestricted license, or no license, you have to have an NPI number. So please, if that item is listed in your onboarding package, it is required. Any item listed in your onboarding package is required for you. So if it's there, make sure you complete it. Require clearances. For employment, you have

three clearances, which I talked about a little bit already. You have your PA Department of Human Services clearance, which is a report that requires fingerprinting at IdentoGO. And then you have your child abuse clearance and your criminal background clearance, which are just online applications that you submit. One thing to keep in mind, if you require a PA training license or even an unrestricted license, you are required to obtain another clearance report, which requires fingerprinting at an IdentoGO station as well. So I advise you to wait until you have your PA training license initiated before submitting

your fingerprints for the PA Department of Human Services report, because you will have to submit two sets of fingerprints. And unfortunately, they have to go to two separate institutions. For your employment clearance, You'll have to have that sent. You'll get it done at IdentoGO with a service code that you register for our institution, whereas the one for your medical license will have a service code for the PA State Medical Board. And then other onboarding requirements. So if you're an international medical graduate, you'll be required to upload a copy of your ECFMG certificate. Again, visa documents,

alien request form. If you are a non-US citizen, you'll be required to complete this alien request form, which is for tax purposes. That information is in your onboarding package. You'll have central line course pre-work. Geisinger Procedural Compact, which is a form you just need to sign. Everyone is required to sign that form, again, whether or not you do procedures or not. If you're pharmacy, you have to sign it. If you're clinical psychology, you have to sign it. Feel free to check the boxes. If you do the procedures, if you don't feel comfortable checking the boxes,

you don't have to. Unfortunately, our institution does require you to sign the paperwork though. Then we have a social media consent form. If you are allowing us to use your photo, that's great. Just sign the form, upload it, and you're good to go. If not, you can send us an email at [email protected], letting us know, and we will waive that section for you and then Let your program administrator know so that your photo's not being taken and used on social media. And then last but not least, if you're in a pharmacy program, we did include

your pharmacy resident program manuals in your onboarding package. Couple tips. When you go into your onboarding package, so you'll get that email with a link to your onboarding package, you'll open up your onboarding package. On the left-hand side, this is what it will look like. If there's a little PDF symbol next to the title of the item that's required to be completed, that means that there's an attachment. There's a couple sections that will have attachments because there's more detailed instructions provided. Make sure you're opening up that attachment because in some cases, it's a whole manual

of how to complete a section, whether that be your license or your clearances, or just a simple instruction sheet for your NPI registration. And then the second tip is, in some cases, you'll have an expand section. So you might not be seeing all of the instructions on screen if you're not clicking that expand. Make sure if there's an expand section, you click expand so that you can see all of the instructions. Okay. So starting with your resident agreement, so your PGY level is based on the training program. So if you have completed prior training, you

may be coming into your program at a PGY4 level, But think you should be a PGY5. Please note that your PGY level is based on the minimum required residency training for that fellowship. So if you are going into, let's say, critical care, you're entering at a PGY level four because the minimum required residency training is an internal medicine residency, which is a three-year program. So please keep in mind, if you have any questions related to your PGY level, you could definitely reach out to your program administrator, but that is the number one thing we get

questions about with our fellows especially. Your starting level will be based on the minimum required residency training for your fellowship. Residents agreements are sent out with your onboarding package, which will be this Wednesday. Once you sign the agreement, we have to approve it in MedHub on our end, which we do mostly in bulk. So give us time. Once we approve it, then you'll be able to view a copy right in your onboarding package. If you need a copy of your resident agreement and we haven't approved it on the GME side yet, feel free to reach

out to your program administrator and they can give you a copy of it. Alternatively, if you need any type of letter or contract for your mortgage, the program administrators have access to a template, a letter template that we use every year for mortgages, so feel free to reach out to them for one of those letters as well. Required clearances. So we have your PA criminal background check, which is again, just that online application that you'll have to complete using the email that comes from Certiphi. Then you have your PA Child Abuse Clearance, again, through Certiphi

Application. Then you have your PA Department of Human Services report, which is going to be a registration that you have to complete, and then you go out to an identical location, submit your fingerprints that way. If you're located outside of the United States, you can mail in your fingerprint card. Alternatively, if there's not an identical location, within four hours of you, you can also mail out your fingerprint cards. It will take much longer for you to get your results back. Just keep that in mind. Those first three clearances are required for employment. The last clearance

is required for your Pennsylvania training license. Again, some programs are not required to obtain a PA training license, so this would not apply to you, but it's an FBI background check. When you receive your application instructions for your Pennsylvania training license, it'll include what you need to do to obtain your FBI background check. That is also another clearance That requires you to register online with IdentoGO and then go out to an IdentoGO location and be fingerprinted. So my best advice for you is if you know you need APA training license, you can go out and

get fingerprinted for both of these reports at the same time. Keep in mind that they will be sent to two separate locations. It is extremely important that you understand. One will go to Geisinger with our service code, which is in those instructions, and then the other will go to the PA state board. The service code for the license will be included in your instructions and the service code for our employment clearance will be in those instructions. So two different registrations online using two different service codes. For the PA Department of Human Services report for employment,

you will receive a payment code as well that covers the cost of the $25 registration fee. For the FBI background check for license, you will not receive that. You will have to cover that cost on your own. Okay. So I basically went through all of this already, but I just want to give a couple more. I'll highlight a couple more sections in here related to your PA Department of Human Services report. So this is your fingerprint report for employment. If you don't have a record, your report is emailed to you pretty quickly. Otherwise, I think

it is also mailed to you, which Can take up to six weeks. If you do have a record, and Jess, correct me if I'm wrong, please chime in. If you do have a record, we ask you to let us know in advance. So for residents, if you're an incoming resident, your supervisor is Scott Jenkins. His email address is on the screen. If you're a fellow, your supervisor is Sarah McIntyre and her email address is on the screen. If you have any questions and concerns related to your background check, it's better to get it out there

now so that we could do what we need to do on the backend to ensure there's no additional delays around a background check that has a record. Correct. And if you do end up having something that you bring forward to us when you receive that report, please make sure that you're including all pages of your report that comes in and just include that in an email to us as well. And so for our residents, Scott Jenkins is your listed HR supervisor and for fellow Sarah McIntyre is your listed HR supervisor. For residents and fellows, that

report doesn't go to your program director or your program administrator. They don't have access to that. So you don't have to worry there. You can email your HR listed supervisor directly if you don't want to Include your program administrator. You don't have to. Alternatively, or on the other side, pharmacy and clinical psychology, your direct supervisor is your program director, so you'll have to reach out to those individuals directly with questions related to your clearance. Okay. Your PA training license. So I've mentioned this a few times already in this presentation. Not every program is required to

obtain a PA training license. Those programs are listed on the screen. Clinical psychology, pediatric dentistry, medical physics, and pharmacy. You are not required to obtain a PA training license or an unrestricted license. So you will not receive an email for us saying that your PA training license isn't initiated. That means you do not need to worry about doing an additional FBI background check. So you're good to go with one set of fingerprints following the instructions for your employee clearance. The programs listed next are going to be individuals that don't require a PA training license, but

do require an unrestricted license. And that unrestricted license does have similar requirements, so it's important to know the difference. So OMFS and podiatry, you're required to obtain an unrestricted license. Please now going into it. We don't provide instructions for unrestricted licenses or the clearances associated with them, but just keep in mind, you are required to obtain A clearance as well for an unrestricted license. So you can submit those at the same time by registering and then going to the IdentoGO site once as opposed to twice. So just keep that in mind. All other programs are

required to obtain a PA training license that includes fellowships that require you to obtain an unrestricted license. So we get that question a lot. "Hey, I'm a fellow. My program requires me to obtain an unrestricted license. I don't need a PA training license." That's not true. You do still need a PA training license. So if it is listed in your onboarding package, it is required. For PA training license, we have to initiate that on the GME side. It's a little cumbersome that whole process, and we do require the dynamic form to be completed by everyone

before we can even begin that process. So we ask that you give us until April 10th to initiate that license application. We will send you an email once it is initiated. So please don't email us prior to April 10th requesting that your license be initiated. We have that on our to do list. We will get it done, but please wait until after April 10th to start emailing us. If you are a fellowship, especially requiring an Unrestricted license, please don't create a PALS account using the email address that we have on record. The reason is because

when we initiate your PA training license, it won't let us use that email address if it's already associated with a PALS account. So if you've already created a PALS account, then please log into PALS and change the email address associated with it so it doesn't match the one we have because what happens is we complete this long application with all of your personal information, go to click submit, and then it tells us that we can because the email is associated with another email address. So it just delays the process even more for us. Employee health

requirements. Number one thing that we get every year, don't go out and complete tests and immunizations before your employee health appointment. We're not going to be able to reimburse you for those tests or immunizations. And if you wait until your employee health appointment, then we can actually order those on our end and then you won't have to worry about payments. We're unable to refund you. So if you go out and do it on your own, we cannot refund you. You will not get that money back. Your employment is conditional upon the completion of a negative

drug screening. So keep that in mind. Our drug screening includes nicotine as well. So there must be no presence of drugs without a valid confirmed prescription, and your drug screen will include nicotine or marijuana. Common reasons for delay are your employee health requirements are not met. Your PA training license application and supporting documents are not submitted timely. Discrepancies for your PA training license are not corrected timely, and then your clearances are not completed and received in time. So the big takeaway there is that please, please, please. I know a lot of you have other clinical

responsibilities and this is very stressful time for you and we're willing to help where we can, but please, please, please be proactive when submitting your documentation, completing all your onboarding tasks. So we highlighted the process for questions in the beginning of this presentation, but just to go over it one more time, as it is very important part of our response time for you, make sure you're only emailing the GME orientation inbox. You may come past other emails that we have. Please stick to the GME orientation inbox. Reach out to your program administrator before GME. That

way they are able to answer your questions more quickly. PAs have a lot less residents or fellows that they're responding to, whereas GME office has over 250 Individuals that we're trying to help during onboarding. So we ask that you please do us that favor of reaching out to your PA first and then reaching out to us if your PA's unable to answer the questions. And then the last big highlight is check the information that we've sent you first. Nine times out of 10, the question that you have is answered in the packets, the instructions, or

the emails that we've already sent you. A lot of times we'll get emails asking us questions in response to an email where the question is answered. And I get it, everybody's busy and you guys have responsibilities and it is a stressful time. But if there's a one takeaway you take from this is please save those emails that we get. And before sending an email to us, review that information to make sure that the answer to your question isn't already in there. It's going to save you possibly three days time waiting for us to respond anyway.

Okay. Jess is going to take over here. Good morning, everyone. It's really nice to meet you all and congratulations on a successful match. I know it sounds like it's far away, but really it's right around the corner. Your start date at Geisinger, your orientation sessions. So we just want to hit on a few things, high level overview so you're aware before you get here. So regarding your start date and accesses, we get a lot of questions on this each year, so we just want to highlight that your orientation date may differ from your actual clinical

start date. So especially if you are an incoming PGY1 or an advanced resident or fellow, your clinical start date is determined by your license start date, Meaning that is most likely going to be July 1st. So on cycle residents and fellows are all going to be beginning either July 1st or August 1st. There are very, very few programs that we have starting August 1st, and they are all upper level surgical specialties. So if you are on this call, you're most likely going to be a July 1st clinical start date, and you are unable to start

any of that clinical work touch patients, log into your chart, or anything until that date. So while we have you coming in about two weeks prior to that for your institutional orientations and your departmental orientations, that is your actual clinical date on your license. So this is also pertinent when it comes to your Epic accesses. So medical residents and fellows are unable to access Epic until two days before that clinical start date. This year, as Rita mentioned, we're going to have some Epic trainings in place for individuals to join ahead of time to try to

get some practice in and get some information before you start. That way it's not July 1st the first time you're ever looking at this. But just so you're aware, that is how we typically do things is your clinical start date is around the time you get your Epic access, unless you are a pharmacy resident, in which case you may receive that before July 1st. Next slide, please. Regarding orientation, your program is going to give you a specific departmental orientation schedule that is just for your program. Potentially, if you have adjacent programs that you work closely

with, It will be a group of you, but we also host an institutional orientation. So for individuals starting as a PGY1, that includes BLS, PALS, ATLS, if applicable, standardized patient communication sessions and residence as teachers, which is clinical teaching skills and feedback sessions. And if you're an advanced resident or fellow BLS central line course if applicable, and then advanced residents as teachers and fellows or as teachers, which is the clinical teaching skills and feedback. So one change within our system this year is regarding the BLS certification. So in years past, no matter if you had

a valid BLS certificate through your previous institution or the American Heart Association, we did make you do your BLS class again here at Geisinger because we had specifics that were Geisinger only. We taught those in conjunction with the AHA, but this year everything is switching over to strictly AHA guidelines, which means that if you have a current BLS card from your current institution, you can upload that as part of your onboarding package. And depending on your expiration date on that card, we'll determine if you have to redo your BLS with us when you get here

or if it can be scheduled later in the year. So that is very exciting because that is one less class you may have to take when you get here, but you will see additional information in your onboarding package regarding that BLS. So more to come on that. Next slide, please. Regarding your orientation, you will receive multiple emails from the GME orientation inbox that Rita mentioned earlier with details regarding your specific orientation date. You will receive one about a month prior and then two weeks prior to your orientation date. And this will give you an overview

of maps of the campus, where you're going to be going on day one of orientation, what to wear, different things like that, just so you're prepared and know what to bring. As a reminder, PGY1 residents are beginning on the 15th of June, which is a Monday. Advanced residents and fellows are starting on July 1st, which is a Tuesday, and surgical specialty fellows are beginning on August 3rd, which is a Friday. And as I mentioned before, that is very specific to SCCM, colon and rectal surgery and vascular surgery. Next slide, please. One very nice thing that

we implemented last year is our institutional orientation app. So please take some time as you go through your onboarding process to download this app and stay up to date on everything institutional orientation here at Geisinger. So you can scan the QR code there or this information will go out in your onboarding Package as well. This gives you information on session times, locations, events. We ask for evaluations at the end of our different events just so we know how to make it better for next year. So please take a moment if you would like to now.

If not, again, you'll have this later, but it's just a really handy tool to keep throughout your orientation process. Next slide, please. Perfect. And that is all I have. So I will throw this back over to Rita. If you have any last minute things before we jump into Q&A. So it's a little backwards, but I just realized I did not introduce me and Jess. So my name is Margarita Menapace. I go by Rita and I primarily handle the oversight of all of onboarding. And then Jessica Beamer, she goes by Jess, primarily handles all of the

oversight for orientation. So I apologize for not introducing us in the beginning, but if you have any questions, go ahead and type them in the chat or raise your hand and we will go through those questions. Go ahead, Aktar. You can unmute yourself and ask your question. I see your hands up. Hi, thank you so much. First of all, yeah, I wasn't able to ... First of all, thank you so much for providing all that information. I just had one question that does any of these forms that you mentioned in the onboarding package requires Physical

presence in the United States? There are options. So throughout all of onboarding, all of the onboarding requirements, there will be ways for you to do everything internationally if you can. The exception to that is going to be your employee health requirements, but that will be discussed with you when employee health contacts you via telephone. You'll have a phone call with employee health and they'll let you know what you need to do or what you can and cannot do internationally. A big, big, big thing that we see with anyone, especially coming in on a visa, is

that your employee health appointment cannot be done until you're in the United States. So that's your drug screen, that's those aspects of your employee health requirements. So you'll just have to manage that once you get your visa and enter the United States, you'll have to make sure you prioritize that because unfortunately that employee health appointment is required before you even start orientation. Yeah, that's understandable. Thank you so much. Yeah. But yes. So to summarize, if you are located outside of the United States, all of the requirements for onboarding will have an option for you on

how to complete it outside of the United States. And if you have questions, you can reach out to us and we'll let you know. Yeah, perfect. Sounds good. Thank you. Yep. Hi, good morning. Good morning. So I was a neurosurgeon for about 15 years and I have an active PA license and they said I still need a training license. So my question for you is, I probably already have a login for that. And I know that you mentioned something about emails and things like that. So I'm a little unclear as what I need to do.

Okay, great question. So if you already have a PALS account because you already have an unrestricted license, the only thing you need to make sure is the email address that we have on file does not match the PALS account that you already have. It's a small nuisance for you as well because you can eventually get those profiles connected. You just have to wait until after we initiate our training license for you. So you can either ... You've had the account for years, you said, so you don't have to change the email address with that account.

That makes sense. If you don't want to, just make sure your program administrator has a different email address for you then so that we can initiate your license using that other email address. So I'll have to come up with a different email address, I guess. Yes, unfortunately. That's fine. I just wanted to make sure. But yeah, okay. Great. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Really quick, I'm going to go to one of the questions written in the chat. So if you live out of the state, is there a location that you could do fingerprinting? When you

receive the instructions, so when you receive your onboarding package, there's an instruction manual for your clearances and it'll let you know, you'll go through an online registration process. During that online registration, you will receive ... On screen, it'll show you a list of all the identical locations around you. If for some reason there is not an identical location around you that you're willing to drive to, you can mail in your fingerprints and those instructions are provided in there on how to do that as well. Just keep in mind, if you have to travel two hours

to be fingerprinted, it's worth it because within, I would say 45 minutes to an hour, sometimes that clearance is made available to you online, as long as you don't have a record. Otherwise, you may have to wait six weeks before you get that report and you cannot start orientation until you have that clearance report back. If you scan the QR code and the link didn't work to the app, then no worries. We will get that out to you and make sure the link's working. Sorry about that. Great question about training program Liaison. So Margarita Menapace,

I am your TPL. If you are entering our program on a J1 visa, I am your contact. So deadline for providing fingerprints, we try not to give you a hard deadline. The reason for that is because we don't know what is preventing you from submitting your fingerprints. What we say is you need to submit them as soon as humanly possible based off of your circumstances, because again, it can take up to six weeks for you to receive your report. So if you don't get fingerprinted until May and your report isn't back, unfortunately, you're not starting

orientation with us on time then. So that's the only advice we can say. In some cases, again, if you don't have a record, you're going to get your report fairly quickly. So you could submit your report or your fingerprints June 1st, get your report back in time to start orientation. So it's hard to give a deadline for everyone. So just submit them as quickly as possible. I wanted to know if the human resources PA appointment and the licensed FEI check appointment have to be done in PA. No. And Jess, I might need your help in

responding to this question. So no, I know they do not have to be done in Pennsylvania. They can be done at any identical location around you, but I believe for the employee clearance, the PA Department of Human Services clearance, There is a fee associated with reports outside of Pennsylvania. Is that correct, Jess? Can be. So when you're registering online for everything, you just want to make sure that you are selecting what is most local to you. As Rita mentioned previously, it may be worth driving a little farther to an IdentoGO site directly, but if you

do need to use the option to use a fingerprinting card, more likely than not, your local police department can do that physical printing. We just ask that you have two copies sent in. That way we kind of mitigate any issues if there's a smudge, there's no delay on that end. When it comes to the other clearances, if it does ask you for an additional fee and you have any questions on that, feel free to email us. But just as a general rule of thumb, we do not reimburse for any of those additional charges if you

are doing it outside of the state. Clarifying for fellows, does this mean we need both a PA training license and an unsupervised license? That's dependent on your program. So if you require an unrestricted or unsupervised medical license for your fellowship, your program administrator will let you know. Otherwise, you will only be required to obtain a PA training license. One thing that is to keep in mind, if you are in a fellowship that requires an unrestricted license and you have to get your PA training license, the state board will combine Those requirements. So you go out,

you start your unsupervised or unrestricted license application, you get fingerprinted, you submit that, you do your child abuse training, you do your opioid training, you just reach out. All you have to do is reach out to the PA state board and they will mark everything on your PA training license as done as well. So they do work with us in ensuring that your requirements for one application matches your other application. So all those documents that you'll have on file, like your prior medical training is in there, et cetera. So keep that in mind. You won't

have to do all of those requirements twice. The PA state board is really good at making sure both applications are covered. Okay. Next question. I was accepted by a PGY2 position, off cycle and categorical program, ophthalmology. Will I need to attend orientation June 15th with the PGY1s or July 1st with the advanced residents? So this is a very, very particular question. So I'm going to answer your question, but then I'm going to advise another large group, which just ... Sorry, I'm answering this question. You're fine. Go ahead. PGY2, so anyone that's a PGY2 or above

will attend the July 1st orientation session. There are exceptions to that. So the best way to get the answer, the correct answer for you as an individual is to ask your program administrator. They will know which orientation you have to attend. Generally speaking, fellows and advanced residents, so anyone at PGY2 or above will attend the July 1st. And then anyone that's a PGY1 will Attend the June 15th. If you are currently in a residency training as a PGY1 and you're coming into a new program with our institution as a PGY1, there may be exceptions to

that. So please work with your program administrator, meaning that if you're in a current residency training and you're unable to attend the June 15th training due to current residency requirements or your contract not ending until June 30th, then you need to reach out to your program administrator and make sure that you were signed up for the correct orientation. There's a lot of planning that goes into our orientation, so it's better to do that sooner than later. Couldn't have said it better myself. Great job, Rita. Okay. Sorry. I'm currently working with Geisinger and I did most

of the checks and screens. Do I need to do them again? Great question. We will reach out. So anyone that completed even rotations with us or is employed with Geisinger right now, we are going to reach out directly to HR with a whole list of individuals that have those employee numbers. So when you complete your dynamic form, if you have an employee number currently, make sure you enter that. And our HR department will go through each of those individuals and let us know whether or not their clearances can be waived. So give us a couple

days to a week and we will update that in your onboarding package And waive it if it's a requirement for you. Generally speaking, if you're a current employee with clearances within the last couple years, you're not going to be required to do that again, but HR will let us know. So we will let you know. If the email you have for us is our medical school email, should we email our permanent email too? Thank you so much for asking that because we face this problem every year. If you have a medical school email address with

us on file, I highly, highly, highly recommend you reach out to your program administrator and get that changed now. The reason for that is because we do all of our HR uploads, so into Workday, et cetera, using the email address we have on file now. And what we end up seeing is come May, June, that email address is deactivated for you with your medical school. So when our HR department is emailing you instructions for Workday, logging in to get your benefits updated, et cetera, you're going to have issues accessing that log in because you're not

receiving the emails from our HR department. So yes, if you currently have a medical school email address on file with us, I highly recommend you get that changed sooner than later. Just for clarification, are the fingerprint requirements due May 15th or April 13th? Your fingerprint clearance report is going to be due before you start orientation, specifically As close to May 15th as possible. May 15th is a deadline. It's hard to make a hard deadline for any clearance because we don't know when you're going to get it or how long it may take. So again, just

keep in mind, all of your clearances for employment are due before you start orientation. You should be fingerprinted way before May 15th, if at all possible. If you're able to be fingerprinted by April 13th, we recommend it. As far as your Certiphi applications, there should be no reason why you cannot submit those prior to April 13th. So those will be due by April 13th. Our HR department through Certiphi does receive that information on the background or on the backend, letting us know if you've submitted your application, if you started your application, et cetera. So we're

able to see who is still straggling after April 13th. So I hope that answered your question. You should be fingerprinted hopefully by April 13th. If you can't, I understand there's things preventing you from doing so, but the bottom line is if you don't get your clearance back in time to start orientation, there's nothing we can do. So the deadline for April 13th specifically says Certiphi packages must be submitted. So it's Your general background check and your child abuse clearance. It's just an online application. Okay. Next question. Will the Epic sessions be recorded? Yes, they will

be recorded and we will make sure they are added to your onboarding package so you can review them later if you need to. The employee health appointment, does it have to be done in the USA? Generally, yes. I believe that the answer is yes, it does have to be done. There's very specific sites that we require that employee health can order the testing and stuff from, so yes. But again, just wait for that call from employee health and they will give you more instructions on all of your employee health requirements. I recently changed US phone

numbers. Should I inform someone about that? Yes, go ahead and do that, especially for employee health. We are going to be pulling a preliminary list to send to employee health. They will receive all of your cell phone numbers or contact numbers that your program administrator has on file for you. And that is the list of phone numbers that employee health will start reaching out to starting on Wednesday. This recording is going to be posted in your onboarding package. So you'll get an email with a link. You'll click on that link and then it'll have a

full list of tasks that you have to do at the very top. It'll also have links to the recorded virtual orientation sessions. Regarding Visa documents, we need to submit all of them before 27th March, but statement of need, which is a requirement for J1 will be sent directly to ECFMG. Shall we start the process right now or shall we wait for TBLs to create our case on ECFMG? That's a great question. I think it's perfectly fine to go ahead and start it now. I've had this in the past. ECFMG will hold onto that until they

receive your application until we initiate your application. And I know in some cases, some countries can take a very long time to send that statement of need, so feel free to go ahead and start that process now for statement of need. So if you are coming into your program requiring a J1 visa sponsorship or you're changing from residency to fellowship, you're going to need a new statement of need. So go ahead and request that statement of need now. I'm in another training program with a contract that ends 6:30 and will likely be unable to be

present in person for orientation for residents on June 15th. What options are there for this issue? So if your current training program is required for any reason, or just your contract now doesn't end till 6:30. So that doesn't give us ... We can't do anything about that, so you'll start July 1st. However, if you're able to, so we do this with our residents too. If they're a PGY1, going into a new program and another PGY1 position, we will end their contract sooner for them. So you can always ask your program if your contract can be

ended Sooner so that you could start orientation with your class. Otherwise, you'll get a much shorter orientation starting July one. So bottom line, reach out to your program administrator to work out your program administrator here at Geisinger to work out what's going to be best for you. You had mentioned it would be advised to wait for PA training license to get fingerprints, so we don't have to do it twice, but our PA training license won't be completed until April 10th. Is this still enough time to wait until after April 10th? Oh, that's a great question.

Yes. It's going to be a similar report. So yes, it's fine to be fingerprinted after April 10th. If that's going to make it easier for you guys, I'd rather you do that anyway. So hopefully that answers your question. And I'll try to get the instructions and the service code even for your license sent out sooner if I can. So BLS certification by the AHA is required to get a contract or offer letter. No, you're going to get your contract with us no matter what on Wednesday. Your BLS certification will be required to be uploaded though.

I don't know if you have more to add to that, Jess. No. So the BLS certification is not a requirement coming in to onboarding Orientation. That's more of just a, we won't make you retake it if you currently have your AHA BLS certification uploaded. So no worries if you don't already have that. Okay. And we are running a little short on time. So if we don't get to all of these questions, we will get that information out to you or have your program administrator get it out to you. Okay. I will be abroad the entire

month of April. Will beam back May 1st sound feasible for timeline of fingerprint requirements. Maybe. It depends. If you have a record, maybe not. It's hard to say. Sorry. With clearances, it's so hard to say. If you're outside of the United States, you could always mail in your fingerprints and then come back May 1st, see where your fingerprint cards are. If the IdentoGO has received them, if they haven't received them. And then at that point, you can then submit your fingerprints electronically. There will be fees that we won't be able to cover then if you

do it that way, but it may be safer. Otherwise, yeah, if you're outside of the United States and you want to wait till May 1st, go ahead. Like I said, it could take up to six weeks. So if your orientation is June 15th, that should be fine. For license of PGY1s, do we get the links for the opioid and child Abuse trainings later with other information about the PA training license? Yes, you do. When is the alien information request form supposed to be submitted? You just have to have it submitted before you ... So the

alien information request form does ask you for local address, so you'll wait to fill that out and you'll need your new visa information if you are coming into your training program with a visa or requiring a visa. So you won't even be able to complete that form until you have your new visa information. So that form is due before you receive your first pay. So before you come to orientation is the end all be all date for the alien information request form. How do I know who my PA is? I will reach out to you

individually and connect you with your program administrator. Your program administrator typically will be reaching out to you this week if they haven't already. But I will write your name down and I will make sure to send you an email after this presentation. If we already have IdentoGO and PA child abuse certification done previously, can we submit those or should we get re-certified? Thank you. For employment, you can send an email to the GMA orientation inbox with a copy of your clearances and I will reach out to HR and see if they are able to use

those or if they require new ones. That's for anyone that Has a PA child abuse certificate, a PA Department of State clearance, or a background check, a patch background check. If you have those done recently, email them to [email protected], and I will forward them onto our HR department to see if we could waive those sections for you. For your PA training license, unfortunately, that report has to be mailed directly to the PA state board, so they will require you to be fingerprinted again. So sorry. As an IMG, I do not have an MPI yet. Could

you let me know what I can ... mention on the ... I think I know what your question is. So your NVI registration instructions will be provided in your onboarding package, and you'll be able to do that from anywhere. Sometimes when you're located internationally with any part of onboarding, if you have a link, you may need to use VPN to access the link, so just keep that in mind. I'm currently employed with Geisinger, so I have a Geisinger email. I have an existing PALS account with my personal email. What is your recommendation? Just make sure

whatever email address we have in MedHub does not match the email address that you have associated with your PALS account. So either go into your PALS account and change the email address in PALS or have your program administrator update the email address we have On record. Based on your experience, what timeline should we as international residents fellows follow as far as getting these licenses, health checks, et cetera, done, assuming we cannot physically be in the US till we get our visa. So the only thing that you won't be able to do outside of the United

States is going to be your employee health appointment, and we'll just get that done as soon as we can. I work with employee health pretty closely for any individuals entering the United States for the first time on a visa, and we get those scheduled. It's not usually an issue, so I wouldn't worry too much about that employee health appointment. Everything else you'll be able to do outside of the United States, and just same timeline as everyone else, except for keeping in mind with NPI registration, fingerprint cards, you're required to mail them in. So you can't

submit those electronically, so it takes a little more time. So the sooner you get those things submitted, the better. Can we reach out and receive letters of employment now? Yes, you can. Go ahead and reach out to your program administrator. They have a template to use for mortgages especially instead of waiting until Wednesday. That's what we have it there for. So yes, you can reach out to your program administrator and they'll be able to create a letter for you. Can I obtain my NPI now or should I wait until the license process is started? If

you are confident and know the instructions to do it, yes, have at it. Anyone Can go ... I think there might be instructions on our onboarding website. There's no need to wait. The only thing in your onboarding package that is helpful is the instructions on how to do it. So if our program doesn't let us end our contract early, we can still have a shortened orientation asking in the event of my program not letting me end the contract. Yeah, it's not a requirement that your program let you end your contract early. So if you cannot

get your contract ended sooner than 6:30, then your orientation will be with the advanced residents and fellows on July 1. It's just important that we get that information now or as soon as possible. So if you have to attend the July 1 orientation, then please reach out to your program administrator and let them know that your contract is not until 6:30. You cannot start orientation with us. You cannot be paid by us as an employer until your contract with your current employer is done. So that's July 1 will be your orientation then. Do we have

to mail fingerprint results or can we do it via email? Also, where do we get the address from to send the reports? That'll all be in the instructions when you get your onboarding package. If you're located internationally, you will have to mail your fingerprint cards in. If you're within the United States, you'll Be able to submit those electronically. What visa documents am I required to submit for March 27th and to whom? That'll be in your onboarding instructions when you receive your onboarding package on Wednesday. I reside in the USA on a dependent visa, but will

not be in the USA until April 12th. Do you recommend starting the fingerprint? April 12th, I think you'll be okay to ... It'll be much quicker for you to submit your fingerprints in the United States. That's for anyone that's located out of the United States. Your fingerprint is going to be ... The report that comes back is going to be much quicker if you submit it electronically. If you're not going to be in the United States for the entire month of April, I don't know how quickly you'll get the results back, so it's probably better

to mail in your fingerprint cards outside of the United States. And then when you get to the United States, find out where the fingerprint cards are to determine if you need to submit them electronically as well. But if you're going to be back in the United States in April, I think it's better to wait until you're back in the United States April 12th to submit your fingerprints electronically as opposed to mailing them out. Your fingerprints can be submitted from another state, yes. Those instructions will be in your onboarding package. When you go in online, you'll

register For your fingerprints and then a whole list of IdentoGO locations around you will be provided. Oh yeah. Thank you, Jess, for responding to that question. I think I answered your question wrong. Your fingerprint results will be sent either directly to the state board if it's for your license application, directly to our institution. Otherwise, you'll have to upload a copy of them to MedHub. My PAs let me know that they will be on medical leave from March 23rd until April 17th. Who should I reach out to for onboarding questions during this time? Go ahead and

reach out to your program administrator. Everyone has coverage for when they're out. So your program administrator will give you a contact while they are out on leave. Do we need BLS training if expired or is that something we can do once we get started during orientation? Jess will respond to that question via email. She had to step out because we went a little over. I will be legally changing my name this summer before starting residency, but depending on difficulty with licensure, et cetera, would it be better to do it after the initial orientation paperwork has

been completed? Thank you so much for asking that question because yes, if we get started with one name, although it's possible, obviously, if you change your name legally, we can change that, but it Becomes a bit of a nuisance for you, for us. So I highly, highly, highly recommend not changing your name until after you've started orientation then to make sure all of your documentation is good. And when you start orientation, so when you do your I9 documentation, there's no issues with what name we had on file in the beginning versus what name we have

on file now, the documentation, your social security number, your passport, et cetera. So if you're not getting married until the summer, I would recommend not changing your name until after you've started with our institution. It's a much quicker process to change your name after you've started. Onboarding package and recording of this session will be available this Wednesday, March 25th. Prior to today, I had already made my appointment for my FBI fingerprint for tomorrow. Do I still complete it tomorrow or wait until later? Are you referring to your fingerprinting for your license? Can you follow up

with that? Can you provide a follow-up to that question? Okay. Yeah. So if you already made an appointment because you had to obtain an unrestricted license, you can keep that. You already started your unrestricted license application, I'm assuming, and that's where you got the information from. Can you just clarify that those instructions came from an unrestricted license application? The reason why I'm asking is because there's a specific service code that the PA State Board of Medicine requires. Yes. OMFS, you're good. Yep. You'll still need to be fingerprinted for your employee clearance though, and those instructions

will come out later. Which city in Pennsylvania can I submit my fingerprints to? Again, all of that information Will be sent out to you guys on Wednesday, March 25th. Who do we contact about changing our email address? It was mentioned to contact HR. Can you provide their contact information? No, your email address needs to be changed with your program administrator. So our HR department, GME department and program administrator are different teams. We work with your program administrator. HR is a separate team, but we work with HR to ensure your employment requirements, your legal employment requirements

are met, but everything else should be sent to your program administrator or GMA orientation. So to change your email address in summary, reach out to your program administrator. Will we be contacted by our respective TPL according to the program so we know which to reach out to? So I am your TPL. I'm the only TPL for Geisinger GME. So for your J1 visa, it'll be me. Your instructions for submitting your J1 documentation will be in your onboarding package so you don't have to reach out to me. You just need to follow the instructions in your

onboarding package to upload the documents that I'm going to need to initiate your visa application. I have an NPI as a nurse practitioner. How can I request for one as a resident? I believe the NPI does not change. I could be wrong with that, But I believe the NPI is always going to be the same. What you'll have to do is log into NPPES and update your employment information. So to make sure that it's associated with the correct tax number, your resident, et cetera. So when you receive the instructions for your NPI registration, it includes

instructions on how to update information if you have a NPI number already. I'm leaving for Alaska Wednesday and will not be back until May 3rd. Is there anything I should complete ahead of time today or tomorrow prior to returning? Yeah, you're not going to get your onboarding package until Wednesday, so there's not much I can tell you to do or what you could do other than you will still need to start your onboarding process while you're in Alaska then, unfortunately. May 3rd will just be way too late in the process to do anything. So look

out in your email, make sure you have email access. If not, you'll have to find a way to get your onboarding started prior to May 3rd. I wish there was a way that I could give you more information, but unfortunately there's not. Okay. Any other questions? All right. Well, if you guys have any questions, go ahead and reach out to your program administrator. Oh, if you have your hand up, go ahead and unmute yourself and you can ask your question. Hi, good morning. Can you hear me? Yes. Awesome. Thank you so much for being here.

I asked a quick question about BLS training and I am so, so sorry. I think it glitched around a couple minutes before and after. I totally missed it. No worries. So I was wondering, is it absolutely necessary to have the BLS training prior to the whole week of orientation, July 15th, or sorry, June 15th, or is that something that we'll kind of get as the orientation's going on? You'll get that once the orientation is going on. You don't have to worry about having that ahead of time. That's just one of those things that we're going

to be implementing this year that if you do currently have it and it's not expiring anytime soon, we're not going to make you retake that course. Absolutely. Thank y'all so much. Of course. Of course. Have a nice day, y'all. Thank you. You too. Okay. Hopefully we answered your questions. If you asked a question and I did not answer it well enough, please feel free to reach out to us and I will try and provide a more in depth answer. Other than that, thank you guys so much for attending and we hope this was helpful. Thanks,

everyone. Have a good one. Bye-bye.