Skip to content
ApplyGive

Other ways to search: Events Calendar | UTHSC News

Incoming Residents and Fellows

Choose Chattanooga

Chattanooga 2022 Relocation Guide

View the 2024 Chattanooga Relocation Guide

Visit Chattanooga

Chattanooga Visitors Guide

View the "Visit Chattanooga" website

Welcome 2024 Incoming Residents and Fellows

Key GME and Dean's Office Staff with whom you will interact:

On March 15, 2024, our Dean, DIO, and Hospital Chief Executive Officer (Dean James Haynes, MD, MBA; DIO Paul Schwartzberg, DO, MBA; and Jim Coleman, MBA) sent a letter welcoming all our incoming Residents and Fellows on March 15, 2024. 

Congratulations on being selected and accepting an appointment into our 2024-2025 GME Programs for July 1 or August 1 (depending on your program). 

We welcome you to the UTHSC College of Medicine-Chattanooga and Erlanger as you enter this next phase of your medical education training. Congratulations on matching into your particular specialty.  We are pleased you have selected our institution as your clinical learning site. As of 2024, UTHSC and Erlanger have forged a strong partnership that spans over 50 years (1974 - 2024). This collaboration enables us to provide a unique balance of clinical care to patients from all walks of life and excellence in medical education. If you have not spent much time in Chattanooga already, you will find our city and region to be a very friendly, welcoming and vibrant community that you can call “home.” 

As you plan for your upcoming arrival to Chattanooga, our institution and respective departments have a plethora of information for you to review and requirements that must be accomplished via our online Onboarding Checklists.  For those of you whose residency or fellowship begins July 1, we ask that you prepare to be moved to Chattanooga no later than Monday, June 10.  If you are entering one of our medicine-related fellowships and are currently finishing another training program, we understand that you may not be able to be in Chattanooga by June 10.  Please let your Program Coordinator know when you will be able to be in Chattanooga.  All incoming Residents/Fellowship will be required to attend a mandatory GME orientation on June 10th from 9 to 11am in the Erlanger Probasco Auditorium. You must contact your Program Coordinator immediately if you are unable to start orientation on June 10th.

Click on the first green button link on the right-hand side of this page to review the GME Institutional Orientation Sessions schedule for June 2024 -- beginning on Monday, June 10, from 9 - 11 am ET in the Erlanger Probasco Auditorium.  Please keep checking with your individual Program Coordinator for the activities that have been scheduled just for your program (e.g., boot campus, team building, etc.).

Also, please keep checking on Onboarding Checklists assigned to you via the New Innovations Residency Management System through the link and login you have received.  During May and June you will have several new Checklists from the University and Erlanger to review and complete.  

We have set up two half-days for communication simulation in the Erlanger Nursing Simulation Center on the Ground Floor of the Massoud Building near the UT Emergency Medicine Academic Offices.  Half of you will be scheduled for the afternoon of June 18 and half will be scheduled on the afternoon of June 25.

Please check back via this page frequently for the most current information.   We will distribute a separate schedule for Fellows who start on August 1.

Hopefully you have already made your appointment for pre-employment drug screens, OSHA respirator mask fit tests, immunizations, etc., at Erlanger Express Care on Market Street).  If not please get your appointment scheduled soon.  If you are unable to undergo a physical examination before moving to Chattanooga, you can also call and schedule that at the same Erlanger Express Care visit at a discounted cash rate ($65) if you are not covered by your current health insurance at the time.  

  • You will receive your Erlanger login information prior to our orientation sessions.  Once we have emailed that information to you, we ask that you please stop by your Program Coordinator's office so you can log into your Erlanger email account on a computer connected to the Erlanger network.  You will use you initial credentials and then be able to change your password to something you will remember.  You should be able to set up your access to patient care information from outside the Erlanger network and even be able to access your Erlanger email through a Webmail link.  We will also schedule some time during orientation for you to bring your laptop, tablet, and phone to get help if needed from the Erlanger IT technicians.
  • We have scheduled our main GME Institutional Orientation sessions for Thu and Fri, June 27 and 28, 2024 at Erlanger.  We will have your official UT white coats and a professional photographer who will take official photos for our website.  
  • In partnership with Erlanger, the UTHSC College of Medicine - Chattanooga has scheduled a welcome event for you and your families at the Tennessee Aquarium on the evening of Tue, June 25, 2024 (probably 6 - 9 pm). You will be able to walk through the Aquarium as well as enjoy dinner.  We hope all our incoming trainees will be able to attend and bring your families. You will be able to meet the UT leadership, Chairs and Program Directors, Erlanger C-Suite and Board Members, and our new Chief Residents/Chief Fellows as of July 1.

Tennessee Aquarium - skyline at night

We thank you for all the work you are doing during April, May, and June to be prepared and ready to begin this next step in your GME training.  

Orientation Schedules and Details

June is getting closer and closer.  We are anxiously preparing for our incoming Residents and Fellows to join us.

Please be sure to review our overall GME Institutional Orientation Sessions beginning Monday, June 10, 2024 through Friday, June 28, 2024.  The schedule is for Institutional GME Orientation Sessions  Please check with your specific Coordinator since your program will schedule its program specific sessions throughout the month of June.  Most of you will begin your official Residency/Fellowship training on Monday, July 1, 2024.  

NEW:  2024 GME Institutional Orientation Sessions (June 2024)GME Fast FactsGME Program LengthsGME Salary/BenefitsErlanger Health  websiteChattanooga Apartment GuideHomes and Land Magazine for Chattanooga and North GeorgiaChattanooga LivingChattanooga VideoVisit Chattanooga:  Summer 2024Living in Chattanooga - Training at ErlangerWhy Chattanooga?

Requirements:

All incoming residents and fellows must -- 

  1. Give permission for and pass a Criminal Background Check (online) through a third party company called the "Cora Croup."
  2. Pass a drug screen, mask fit test, 2-TB skin tests, and immunization screening (including necessary titers and immunizations) performed by the Erlanger Employee Health arm of Erlanger Express Care.  Erlanger requires that male Residents and Fellows must be clean- or close- shaven in order that the respirator will be able to seal for the OSHA-required mask fit test which would be used in negative pressure patient rooms.
  3. Document a physical exam conducted since January 2024, and have a health statement form stating that the resident/fellow is physically and mentally fit to begin duty in our residency program. The form must be signed by a U.S. licensed physician.  Residents or Fellows may not conduct and sign the physical exam/health statement form for one another.  If you do not have a primary care physician and cannot get the physical exam done prior to July 1, you will be able to contact Erlanger Express Care to schedule a physical exam earlier this upcoming Spring (at your own cost: $65).
  4. You can begin scheduling appointments for your pre-employment drug screen, mask fit-tests, TB skin tests, and immunization screening, as well as physical exams if you cannot get one otherwise as early as April 29, 2024.

You have already received emails to log into our secure, web-based Residency Management Information system (New Innovations).  We appreciate that most everyone is making progress on completing the Onboarding Checklists housed in that system.

In order to be eligible to receive the GME Orientation and Electronic Communication Stipends on your July 31, 2024 paycheck (the last working day of the month), you must complete Checklists #1 - 4 by June 14, 2024 (or the indicated deadline for each step).  These stipends total $950.  For Checklists #5 - 9,  you will also need to comply with the deadline for each Checklist and each individual step (before you begin training on either July 1 or August 1).  In addition, you must also attend all required certification training, Department Orientation Sessions, and GME Institutional Orientations Sessions in order to receive those Orientation Stipends as well.

Everyone is working to find creative ways to meet our requirements and ensure a smooth transition to your residency and fellowship programs. 

Other Key Points to Remember:

You will be an employee of the University of Tennessee and not our affiliated hospital, Erlanger.  Please be aware that your first official day of residency/fellowship training will be Monday, July 1, 2024, unless you have already been given a later start date by your Program Director.   Fellows in Cardiovascular Disease, Emergency Medical Services, Primary Care Sports Medicine, and Gastroenterology also start on July 1, 2024.  Surgical Fellows, including Colon and Rectal Surgery, Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery, and Vascular Surgery, have a start date of August 1, 2024.  

Life support certification: Depending on your specialty, you will need to obtain BLS, ACLS, PALS, NRP, ALSO, and/or ATLS certification before you officially begin your residency or fellowship on July 1. If you can obtain the required certifications prior to July 1 at your medical school or current training program, you will just need to send the GME Office a copy of your certification cards denoting dates of certification (email to your Program Coordinator).  

Please let us know if there is anything else with which we can assist you.  Welcome to Chattanooga, UT, and Erlanger!

Jun 4, 2024