Free for every resident and fellow
Keep the record before there’s a case.
Every resident signs an agreement, receives a handbook, gets evaluated, and tracks hours. Almost nobody keeps their own copies. The residents who end up needing help usually need exactly those documents, and by then their access is gone. The Residency Record is a free, private place to keep them, with the dates that follow.
No fee, no tier, no upgrade. Not a client relationship. The firm cannot see what you store.
Why this exists
The documents that decide a dispute are the ones residents lose first.
Suspension usually comes with a disabled login. The handbook gets revised. The evaluation system belongs to the program. By the time a resident calls a lawyer, the policy that was in force on their dates is gone from the website, the favorable evaluations are behind a password, and the agreement is in a drawer at the hospital.
Every resident who has contacted us so far reached out after dismissal. We built the Record so the next one has the file before the meeting, not after.
What you get
- A checklist of seventeen documents, with the ACGME requirement or practical reason behind each
- Private storage for each item, labeled by academic year, with open and remove controls
- Expiration tracking for licenses, certifications, and visa documents
- Your agreement dates and the latest non-renewal notice date under your institution’s policy
- A calendar file with every date and reminders two weeks and one day ahead
- A clear boundary: the firm sees nothing unless you send it through an intake
What to keep
Six categories, grounded in what your institution owes you
The full checklist has seventeen items. These are the ones that come up in nearly every matter.
Your resident or fellow agreement, every year
ACGME requires it to contain or reference your duration of appointment, pay, conditions for reappointment and promotion, grievance and due process, liability coverage, insurance, and leave (Institutional Requirements 4.3.a). It is the first thing a lawyer asks for.
The GME handbook and due process policy in force on your dates
Your institution must have a due process policy for suspension, non-renewal, non-promotion, and dismissal, and a grievance policy (4.4.b and 4.5). Handbooks change every year; disputes are judged against the version you were under, which is often no longer posted.
Evaluations, milestones, and exam scores as they post
Your evaluations must be accessible to you, and your program director must review a documented semiannual evaluation with you (Common Program Requirements 5.1.g and 5.1.c). Two years of “meets expectations” changes how a sudden deficiency reads.
Liability coverage, including tail
You are owed official documentation of your professional liability coverage before you start and written notice of substantial changes, including to tail coverage (4.6.a and 4.6.b). Claims can arrive years after training ends.
Licenses, certifications, and anything that expires
A lapsed training permit or an expired ACLS card is an avoidable line in a remediation letter. Enter the dates once and they show up on your calendar.
Your own dated account
Praise nobody files for you, written feedback in date order, and a same-day summary of any meeting that produced none. Contemporaneous notes outweigh reconstructed memory, theirs and yours.
The non-renewal clock runs on your institution’s policy
Residents are often told the ACGME requires four months of notice before non-renewal. The current Institutional Requirements require written notice of intent and a due process policy, but they no longer set a national minimum notice period (4.4.a and 4.4.b). What governs your timing is the policy your institution wrote for itself, and many carried the 120-day rule forward.
The Record asks for your agreement end date and the notice period in your handbook, then shows the latest date notice can be given under that policy. If the date passes without written notice, your institution’s own rule becomes a fact in your favor.
Read the non-renewal explainerExample
- Agreement ends
- June 30
- Notice period in your policy
- 120 days
- Latest notice date under your policy
- March 2
Illustrative only. Your dates come from your signed agreement and your institution’s written policy.
How it works
Ten minutes now, while you still have access
Create a free account with a personal Google login
Not a hospital or program account. Institutional accounts can be read by administrators and are cut off the day you are suspended.
Save the three documents that decide most disputes
Your agreement, your handbook, and your due process policy. Most residents can find them in ten minutes while they still have access.
Enter your agreement dates and your notice period
The tracker computes the latest date your program can give notice of non-renewal under its own policy, and you can export every date to your calendar.
Add evaluations and yearly documents as they arrive
Nothing is reviewed by anyone. If something ever starts, you will already have what counsel asks for on day one.
Who can see it
Only you.
Your Record is not a message to a lawyer and does not start one. It lives in a separate, private store with no staff access policy. The firm receives a document only when you upload it to a specific request after an intake, and a conflicts check happens before any engagement.
| Information | You | Firm staff |
|---|---|---|
| Residency Record files, notes, dates | Yes | No |
| Name, state, specialty, training level | Yes | Only to route an intake |
| Files you upload to a firm request | Yes | Yes |
Questions
Straight answers
Is the Residency Record really free?
Yes. There is no paid tier, no trial, and no upgrade. Resident Help is a nonprofit in formation, and the Record exists because residents who need help later almost never have the documents they need. Representation, where we take it, is pro bono and decided separately through the intake.
Can the firm see my files?
No. Files in your Residency Record are stored separately from the firm’s client documents, and no staff access policy exists for them. The firm receives a document only when you upload it to a specific request in the document exchange after an intake.
Does creating an account make me a client?
No. An account does not create an attorney-client relationship, and no attorney reviews what you store. If you need the firm’s help, you start an intake like anyone else, and a conflicts check is completed before any engagement.
Which documents should every resident keep?
At minimum: the signed resident or fellow agreement for each year, the institutional GME handbook and the grievance, due process, and appeal policies in force that year, every evaluation and milestone report, in-training exam scores, your state training license or permit, and documentation of your professional liability coverage including tail. The Record lists seventeen items with the reason for each.
How much notice does a program have to give before non-renewal?
The current ACGME Institutional Requirements require written notice of intent for non-renewal, non-promotion, and dismissal, and a due process policy, but they no longer set a national minimum notice period. Your institution’s own policy does, and many kept the older 120-day rule. The Record lets you enter the notice period from your policy and computes the resulting date.
Why not just keep these in Google Drive?
You can, and some residents do. The Record adds the checklist of what to keep and why, the dates that follow from your agreement, calendar export with reminders, and a structure that matches what counsel asks for. It also stays separate from any institutional account.
The best time to start a file was orientation. The second best time is tonight.
Free, private, and yours. If you are a chief resident or a program coordinator who wants every trainee to have one, send this page to your class.