Reports are initially screened by a Human Resources (HR) leader to determine if the incident is a violation of any WUSM or BJC policy (e.g. discrimination or harassment). WUSM HR communicates with BJC HR and vice versa, regardless of where the report is submitted, to ensure the appropriate HR office is engaged. Any incident that is a policy violation will have an initial investigation by HR and options for resolution will be communicated with the reporter. All incidents that are not policy violations will be sent to the SAFE committee leaders. The SAFE leaders may gather additional information to better understand the nature of the event. Action will depend on the nature of the event and on whether there have been previous reports about the same individual or from the same learning area. The reporter will get notification that action will be taken, but specifics regarding the action taken may not be possible, in order to protect the privacy of the identified person.
You will receive a notice within 24 hours of submitting your report that it was received. In general reports are reviewed by HR within a few days. In some cases, information gathering may take longer. If you have reported anonymously, you can log back into the portal to get an update on your report or ask questions. If you have identified yourself, you can expect communication directly. If you have submitted an anonymous report, you must log into the portal for an update. We recommend that you log in 5-7 days after submission to check the status and answer any questions.
If there have been no prior reports filed regarding the individual and the concern is not egregious, SAFE will first provide education and awareness building. A trained member of the SAFE committee will have a conversation with the identified person about how their behavior was perceived (e.g. disrespectful, biased or as a microaggression). This will be conducted in a manner that protects the identity of the reporter. When a pattern of behavior is identified in a group or area, then group education may be provided. In cases where there are multiple reports about an individual, higher level action may be taken. This could include formal coaching, referral for evaluations, or disciplinary action. Incidents that are determined to be a policy violation will be addressed as required under those policies, such as the Discrimination and Harassment policies. These decisions will involve HR and Departmental/ Supervisor leadership.
Yes, you can report any incident in any area through this reporting portal. As appropriate, WUSM HR, BJC HR, hospital HR and the SAFE leadership will collaborate to plan educational conversations or other actions. If an incident involving hospital staff was reported in SEMS due to patient safety concerns, please note that as SEMS was filed in your report. This helps us know if others are also working on the concern.
Yes. If you want, the portal allows you to remain anonymous. We ask that you please log back into the system within 5-7 days to answer any questions we may have about your report. You will be asked to note your report number and you can create a password to log back into the system for follow up.
You can note in your report that you have already resolved the incident so no action is needed. We would still like you to report the incident in the Learner Mistreatment Reporting Form so that we can monitor incident frequency. The only way for us to fully understand the patterns of events and the people involved is for all events to be reported.
If your report concerns a potential policy violation an investigation will be conducted in accordance with the applicable WUSM or BJC policy. However, if your concern does not pertain to a policy violation you are able to delay action. On the form there is a box you can check to delay action and note a time frame for the delay. WUSM and BJC do not tolerate any form of retaliation.
WUSM and BJC do not tolerate any form of retaliation. You should submit a new report that details the nature of the retaliation and it will be investigated promptly.
The SAFE committee will review all positive experience reports and compile them by Department/Unit. These will be sent to Department/Unit leadership on a regular basis and will be included in the learning environment reports provided to the broader community each year.
You can log into the portal using your password and your incident number to get an update on your report. Please make sure you save your report # and password.
Behaviors and incidents that do not constitute a policy violation will generally not go into an employment record unless they are repetitive. These events are tracked in a separate system for the purposes of being able to identify when there are repeat issues and for understanding the experiences of individuals in our learning environment. When there is a pattern of behavior and a need to escalate action, or if formal disciplinary action is required, then that maybe recorded in an employment record.
The SAFE committee will be reviewing data on events quarterly. Quarterly data is available on the Outcomes page on the SAFE website. Reports will be provided to the Executive Faculty (Department Chairs and Dean), Academic Affairs, BJH and SLCH leadership, GME Board, COMSE and relevant stakeholders. It is an expectation that program directors and leadership share the data with learners.
As of March 10, 2022, WashU authentication has been enabled for everyone with WashU credentials. Go to https://mycanvas.wustl.edu/washu-extended-learning/ and click Login with WUSTL Email (SSO) using your wustl.edu email and associated WashU password. Accept the on-screen course invitation if prompted. Then, access the SAFE course from the dashboard. If you cannot login with your WashU credentials, please reach out to MedExtendedLearning@wustl.edu.
If you have not received an invitation, please complete a SAFE Learning Modules Opt-In survey. Our team will respond with next steps. If you’d like to check to see if you were invited, try the steps above to login to https://mycanvas.wustl.edu/washu-extended-learning/ and click Login with WUSTL Email.
Review the Resources & Reporting page from the Task Force on Climate & Culture. You may also find this Learner Flowchart helpful (WUSTL Box link), specifically designed for mistreatment or harassment in our student learning environments.