Welcome to the Mistreatment Reporting Site at the Einstein College of Medicine

At Albert Einstein College of Medicine, we strive to foster a learning environment that is safe, equitable, and supportive, where every member of our larger community of learning, practice and scholarship feels valued. We are equally committed to addressing all breaches in these values and, in particular, when members of our community believe they have experienced mistreatment.

Einstein’s Medical Student Mistreatment Policy is that no person shall be subject to retaliation for participating in a complaint process. State and federal laws and Einstein’s policy protect against retaliation for reporting mistreatment, harassment, and/or discrimination.

We encourage you to submit on this site your experience with any occurrence of mistreatment which will involve completing some information, determining whether you would prefer to remain anonymous (i.e. your identity is unknown to the investigating committee) or confidential (i.e. your identity is disclosed confidentially to the investigating committee but shielded from all other parties involved). We would like to introduce the group who will investigate your concern, the Einstein Learning Environment Committee.

About the Einstein Learning Environment Committee (ELEC)

The ELEC is a group of individuals committed to providing an informal, impartial, open-minded and supportive ear for Einstein students and postdoctoral fellows (PhD) to be heard with respect to their concerns and complaints about their learning environment and interactions with their teachers, the clinical and laboratory staff and peers.

We realize that despite our best efforts, some instances of perceived and/or real mistreatment can occur. To address these issues, we created our Einstein Learning Environment Committee (ELEC) to investigate any allegations of student and postdoctoral fellow (PhD) mistreatment.

Students and postdoctoral fellows (PhD) who submit reports to the ELEC should feel confident that their concerns will be kept anonymous or confidential, based on their preference, and will be thoroughly investigated without fear of retaliation.

The ELEC consists of the following:

1. Ombuds Committee:
   • Elizabeth Dinces, MD, MS, Chair
   • Deborah White, MD, co-chair
   • Paul E. Levin, MD
   • U. Thomas Meier, PhD
2. Representatives from the Office of Student Affairs, Office of Medical Education, Office of Diversity Enhancement and Office of the Vice Dean for Education.

Our Commitment

Albert Einstein College of Medicine fosters a learning environment where open and honest communication is the norm. ELEC’s mission is to offer confidential, independent, fair, and safe support to all learners within the Einstein/Montefiore community.

Reporting Process

1. If you choose to share your identity in your report, you will be contacted by a member of the ELEC to arrange a meeting to confidentially discuss the incident. You are welcome to bring a companion to this meeting for support. If you choose to remain anonymous, your report will be investigated fully without this meeting, and you can check on the progress via the confidential report unique “report key” and password (see below) through this portal.
2. Following the meeting with the ELEC member with your approval the ELEC member 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 ELEC member will not directly approach the named individual. The timing of this investigation will be determined by your preferences, unless there is an imminent danger that necessitates immediate action.
3. Within two weeks of being approached by the ELEC member, the supervisor will address the issue with the named individual or their supervisor.
4. To ensure that the process is comfortable and without fear of retaliation for the student, this procedure can be modified in accordance with the student’s preferences through discussion with the ELEC member.
5. The ELEC meets monthly to review mistreatment reports.