Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
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Coterminous Faculty

Coterminous appointments are courtesy faculty appointments, requested by a department chair and usually at the rank of instructor, for an individual who holds a training position or a limited term professional staff appointment in the VA or selected clinics outside of McGaw Medical Center. When the controlling position (fellowship, chief residency, etc.) ends, the faculty appointment automatically ends.

Coterminous Faculty Ranks

  • Coterminous Lecturer (visit the Lecturers page to process an appointment at this rank)
  • Coterminous Instructor
  • Coterminous Assistant Professor

 New Appointment (without an NMG Agreement)
For coterminous faculty who are not practicing with Northwestern Medical Group

Important! If the candidate's primary position is as a postdoctoral fellow and you need to submit both the new postdoc and the new coterminous faculty appointments, please submit via a single OnBase transaction following the instructions for New Postdoc with New Coterminous Instructor Appointment on the Postdoctoral Fellows page.

If submitting a new coterminous appointment only, complete the OnBase submission form (for help, view this OnBase page) and attach these documents:

  • Upload the Personal Data Form separately to its respective button
    • If an existing faculty member is changing to coterminous status, the personal data form isn't necessary unless the faculty member needs to update information on it
  • Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:
    1. Coterminous Faculty Cover Sheet (Word)
    2. Position Data/Appointment Forms
    3. Prior correspondence with FAO regarding special circumstances, if applicable
    4. Candidate's CV indicating primary/controlling position

 Reappointment (for appointments ending on Aug. 31)

Faculty whose appointment terms end Aug. 31 are reappointed together as part of an annual batch process. View the Annual Reappointment Process page for details.

 Reappointment (for appointments ending on a date that is not Aug. 31)

When possible, departments are encouraged to appoint coterminous faculty in terms that end on August 31 so that they may be reappointed as part of the annual batch process.  
For coterminous appointments expiring on a date other than August 31, submit a reappointment by completing the OnBase submission form (for help, view this OnBase page) and attaching these documents:
  • Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:
    1. Position Data/Appointment Forms, printed from myHR and updated
      Appointment Form Action/Reason codes: DTA/REA
    2. Prior correspondence with FAO regarding special circumstances, if applicable

 Change Appointment Basis

Complete the OnBase submission form (for help, view this OnBase page) and attach these documents:

  • Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:
    1. Change Appointment Basis Cover Sheet (Word)
    2. Position Data and Appointment Forms, downloaded from myHR and updated
    3. Prior correspondence with FAO regarding special circumstances, if applicable
    4. Candidate's CV

 Change Appointment Category

If proposing a change to a current faculty member's category of appointment, please navigate to the webpage describing the intended faculty appointment category and follow the new appointment process/checklist listed there.

 Request Approval for an Outside Appointment

Faculty must obtain approval from their Department Chair and the Dean’s Office before accepting an appointment at an another institution.

Request approval to obtain an outside appointment.

 About Coterminous Faculty Practicing Clinically at NMG

This scenario typically applies to ASTP Fellows, NRSA fellows, or other advanced trainees in training programs not accredited by ACGME or administered by the McGaw Medical Center.

These trainees are not employed by McGaw and therefore do not have clinical privileges through McGaw. To practice at NMG/NMH, they must be privileged and credentialed as attending physicians, which requires that they have a faculty appointment.  However, as trainees, they are not eligible for appointment as Clinician-Educators or Health System Clinicians, so are appointed as coterminous Instructors, a type of courtesy appointment that is concurrent with their advanced training program (i.e., when the advanced training program ends, the faculty appointment also ends). Their trainee status makes them ineligible to be employed as full-time faculty or Health System Clinicians at NMG, so they are set up as NMG Consultants in order to practice clinically.  

  • Total Salary & Effort: In myHR, these individuals will have one record (Record 0) with 100% of the effort and salary appearing on that record. All compensation is paid from NU, and the department will need to process an internal transfer of funds from NMG to NU, generally at the specialty’s $/RVU rate for actual wRVUs performed, in order to reimburse NU for the clinical portion of the salary.  Essentially, NMG leases these faculty from NU for clinical service.
  • Privileging and Credentialing: At NMG/NMH, these physicians are privileged and credentialed as attending physicians if the department intends to bill for any portion of their clinical services, but only for those privileges which they can practice independently by virtue of their prior training. Thus, when applying for privileges at the hospital, they should request only those privileges that they can perform independently and not also the privileges they will be learning in their advanced training program. The latter will be performed in their capacity as a fellow/trainee and only under the supervision of an attending physician who is authorized to perform those privileges.
  • Appointment Term: Coterminous appointments are for 1 year, eligible for reappointment annually for the duration of the training program.
  • Offer and Appointment Process: An offer letter and business plan must be submitted for review and approval by FSM and NMG; following approval of the offer and business plan, departments should complete the appointment process. See the checklists below for each of these phases.

 Phase 1: Approval of Offer Letter and Business Plan

This phase is accomplished electronically using the business plan database.

Step 1: Prepare a business plan in the business plan database

Step 2: Attach the following documents to the business plan:

 Phase 2: Appointment Process

After the business plan is approved in phase 1, submit an OnBase transaction to complete the appointment process.

Important: If the candidate's primary position is as a NRSA postdoctoral fellow (or other postdoctoral research fellow) and you need to submit both the new postdoc and the new coterminous faculty appointments, please submit via a single OnBase transaction following the instructions for New Postdoc with New Coterminous Instructor Appointment on the Postdoctoral Fellows page.

If you are submitting a coterminous faculty appointment only, complete the OnBase submission form (for help, view this OnBase page). When selecting the type of position, choose Faculty (not "Faculty (NMG Member)"), and attach these documents:

  • Upload the Personal Data Form separately to its respective button
    • If an existing faculty member is changing to coterminous status, the personal data form isn't necessary unless the faculty member needs to update information on it
  • Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:
    1. Coterminous Faculty Cover Sheet (Word)
    2. Position Data/Appointment Forms
      • No signature from NMG is required, and there is no set of "NMG Member" forms.  Typically, there will be one set of forms (Record 0) for the coterminous Instructor appointment with all effort and salary on that record. 
      • Exception: For NRSA fellows, the NRSA position is record 0 and the coterminous Instructor position is record 1. Salary should be split across these records, but record 0 should have 100% effort.
    3. Prior correspondence with FAO regarding special circumstances, if applicable

 Termination or Appointment Non-renewal
Involuntary departure initiated by the department

Phase 1: Provide Written Notice of Appointment Non-Renewal

Faculty must receive advance written notice from the Department Chair that the appointment will not be renewed; the amount of notice is dependent on the length of the faculty member's current appointment term. If you wish to discuss the case before providing the notification, contact fao@northwestern.edu 

Exception: Most faculty who practice clinically are required to remain in good standing at their clinical employer in order to retain their faculty appointment. If the clinical employer terminates their employment, the faculty appointment can be terminated the same day as the clinical employment, without the same advance notice requirements. If this situation arises, please contact fao@northwestern.edu to discuss the case.

  1. Prepare the letter (template available below) and send to the faculty member:
  2. Submit a copy of the letter to FAO via the online Faculty Appointment Non-renewal form
     

Phase 2: Submit Termination Transaction Via OnBase

To process a termination after providing advance notice to the faculty member, submit via the OnBase submission form (for help, view this OnBase page). Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:

  1. Position Data/Appointment Forms
    • Download ALL active records (e.g., secondary appointments) and update as needed. If the faculty member has appointments in other departments, notify the other departments of the termination. The position/appointment forms to end all appointments should be submitted by the primary department through its OnBase submission. (If a secondary department wishes to retain an appointment for the faculty member, it would submit an additional OnBase transaction separately to propose an appointment change.)
    • Appointment form action/reason codes: depends on termination reason, so consult action/reason code matrix 
    • Position form action/reason code: POS/INA
  2. Copy of written notification provided to faculty member

 Resignation
Voluntary departure initiated by the faculty member

Complete the OnBase submission form (for help, view this OnBase page) and attach these documents:

  • Upload the faculty member's resignation letter (if available) separately to its respective button
  • Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:
    1. Position Data/Appointment Forms
      • Download ALL active records (e.g., secondary appointments) and update as needed. If the faculty member has appointments in other departments, notify the other departments of the resignation. The position/appointment forms to end all appointments should be submitted by the primary department through its OnBase submission. (If a secondary department wishes to retain an appointment for the faculty member, it would submit an additional OnBase transaction separately to propose an appointment change.)
      • Common appointment form action/reason codes:
        TER/OTP (resignation for another position)
        TER/PER         (resignation for personal reasons)
      • Position form action/reason code: POS/INA

 Retirement

Coterminous faculty are not eligible for retirement at FSM. When a coterminous faculty member retires from his or her primary position, the coterminous faculty appointment at FSM should be terminated because s/he is no longer eligible to hold it.

 Death

Complete the OnBase submission form (for help, view this OnBase page) and attach these documents:

  • Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:
    1. Position Data/Appointment Forms
      • Download ALL active records (e.g., secondary appointments) and update as needed. If the faculty member has appointments in other departments, notify the other departments of the death. The position/appointment forms to end all appointments should be submitted by the primary department through its OnBase submission. 
      • Appointment form action/reason code: TER/DEA
      • Position form action/reason code: POS/INA
    2. Obituary (if available)