All student and resident training affiliations between the UCLA Health Sciences and another entity require an affiliation agreement. In addition, only certain individuals have been delegated the legal authority under University policy to negotiate and execute affiliation agreements on behalf of UCLA within their areas of responsibility (please see DA 210.07). All UCLA affiliation agreements must be approved as to form by a University attorney. (See UCLA Policy 970, Affiliation Agreements.) When the UCLA approved template affiliation agreement is used, and there are no substantive changes to the template, no further legal review of the agreement is required, and the Department may proceed with signatures following the signature process described here.
When changes are made to the UCLA approved template affiliation agreement, the process for review and approval of the affiliation agreement is as follows:
- Approval. The Department obtains formal approval for the Affiliation from the Department supervisor. The Department is responsible for reviewing and approving the underlying business terms of the agreement, and for ensuring that the agreement contains all of the necessary terms from a business perspective.
- Use of Template. UCLA Health Sciences has form Affiliation Agreements for the following:
- School of Medicine
- School of Nursing
- UCLA Hospitals and Clinics
With respect to those Affiliation Agreements covering the rotation of non-UCLA students/trainees through UCLA facilities, UCLA requires use of its form Affiliation Agreement (an annotated version is available, which provides completion instructions). A separate template must be used when California State University student/trainees rotate through UCLA facilities. There is also a separate template appropriate for high schools whose students will receive course credit for gaining research-related non-clinical experience in UCLA research laboratories. For all rotations, the Department must complete the UCLA form Affiliation Agreement, as well as all terms in Exhibit A, and send the draft form to the affiliate institute.
When there is an existing Affiliation Agreement in place, and a Department wants to add another program or group of students under the Agreement, a new Exhibit A can be created for that program or group of students. An annotated version of the Exhibit A with instructions is found here. A new Affiliation Agreement or amendment is not necessary. The Department representative responsible for the education program signs Exhibit A, and should keep a copy of the new Exhibit A with a copy of the complete Affiliation Agreement.
- Completion of Template Terms. The Department works with the affiliate institution to ensure the Exhibit terms and all fields in the form Affiliation Agreement are complete.
- Legal Review. If the affiliate institution requests changes to UCLA's form agreement, the Department should ask the affiliate institution to make the changes to the UCLA Affiliation Agreement using track changes. The affiliate institution sends the track changes version of the Affiliation Agreement to the Department. The Department handles the communications with the affiliate institution. The Department reviews the changes to the Affiliation Agreement and determines whether the changes are acceptable to the Department.
- The Department sends the revised Affiliation Agreement (with track changes) to the UCLA Health Office of Legal Affairs (310-267-7445) for legal review of the proposed changes.
- An attorney within the UCLA Health Office of Legal Affairs provides legal comments to the proposed changes, such as whether the proposed changes are acceptable under UCLA policy. The attorney will inquire with Risk Management as to whether any proposed changes to insurance or indemnification are acceptable.
- The Department communicates back to the affiliate institution the revised document as affirmed by Legal, Risk Management and the Department.
- In all cases, changes to the final Affiliation Agreement to be signed by the parties must have advance approval from the UCLA Health Office of Legal Affairs and Risk Management.
- Sending UCLA Students to Affiliate Institutions. In those cases where UCLA is sending residents or students to an affiliate institution for clinical training and experience, it is more likely that the affiliate institution will require UCLA to use its form. The Department is responsible for determining whether the receiving institution's terms are acceptable to the Department and reflect the intended arrangement. After the Department has reviewed the agreement and it is in a form that is acceptable to the Department and reflects the business terms that have been agreed upon, the Department sends the agreement to the Office of Legal Affairs for review, following paragraph 4 above.
- Signatures. The Department obtains signatures on the final Affiliation Agreement according to the process on the Contracts Page using the template cover memo. The Department retains the executed copy of the agreement in its files and is the office of record for its affiliation agreements.
- Timing. The process outlined above should be started as soon as reasonably possible prior to the date on which the student is to start the rotation.
Please contact the UCLA Health Office of Legal Affairs at (310) 267-7445 for assistance.
