Residency accommodations approved but not provided: what to check

You have an approval letter. Your schedule has not changed.

If you have a disability, your sponsoring institution must have an accommodation policy, and as your employer it generally must work through an interactive process with you once you ask. Many residents do the hard part. They ask, they provide documentation, and they receive an approval letter. Then nothing on the schedule changes.

Send us the letter and tell us what has happened since: start a confidential intake.

Questions to ask about your own accommodations

• Did you make the request in writing, and do you have the date?
• Was there an interactive meeting, and did you receive a written determination?
• Does the determination list each accommodation, who is responsible for it, and when it starts?
• Was the determination sent to your program, and did anything in your schedule, evaluations, or remediation plan change because of it?
• Were you given a chance to use the accommodations before you were evaluated, suspended, or dismissed?
• If a request was denied, does the denial describe what you actually asked for? If not, see accommodation denied for something you never asked for.
• Did anything adverse happen soon after you asked?

If any answer is no

Write it down the same day. Send a short, factual email to HR and your program contact asking when each approved accommodation will be in place. Keep copies outside your institutional account. Your accommodation file should be kept separate from your training file, so ask who has seen it.

Keep a dated timeline

Record the date of the request, the meeting, the determination, the first day each accommodation was actually in place, and any adverse action. The gap between approval and use is often the key fact.

If you are suspended or removed from clinical work

Approval letters can issue and then never be put into practice, especially when a resident is suspended or removed from clinical work soon after. Ask in writing when each approved accommodation starts. If you are on a remediation plan, ask that the plan account for them. See suspended with no letter.

One honest limit

Accommodations usually work going forward. They rarely erase concerns raised before you asked, which is why asking early matters.

Deadlines

Charges for disability discrimination or failure to accommodate carry the same 180- or 300-day federal limit as other discrimination charges. Whether you have a claim is a question for a lawyer who has reviewed your file. See deadlines you cannot miss.

If this is happening to you

Approved but not provided? Send us your determination letter and tell us what has changed on your schedule since. We will review it confidentially and tell you the next step: start a confidential intake.

Resident Help is not a law firm, and submitting an intake does not create an attorney-client relationship. If your situation needs a lawyer, we will tell you and help you find one.