Date, 2008
Dear :
OHSU is very grateful for the support we receive from vendors and industry. This support helps us to carry out our missions of health care delivery, education, research and public outreach and we are committed to maintaining that spirit of collaboration moving forward.
However, pharmaceutical companies that do business with OHSU need to know about two current initiatives related to gifts and conflict of interest policies. These initiatives are in keeping with the spirit of the 2002 Pharma Code principle “that a health care professional’s care of patients should be based, and should be perceived as being based, solely on each patient’s medical needs and the healthcare professional’s medical knowledge and experience.”
The first initiative is a new Oregon ethics law that took effect on January 1, 2008. This law includes a $50 limit on gifts from vendors to individual employees on an annual basis. These gifts include everything from food to notepads, in addition to a ban on accepting any kind of entertainment, i.e. tickets to a Trail Blazer game. The new law has extensive and potentially time-consuming documentation rules and significant penalties for violations.
Given the complexities of the state law, and the very real possibility of inadvertent non-compliance, we are encouraging OHSU employees to become early adopters of a draft OHSU policy which is not yet in effect but which will be both simpler and more aspirational than the state law. A key provision of the draft policy is a prohibition on the individual receipt of any gift, without regard to a monetary threshold.
It is important to note that both the new law and the proposed policy allow for unrestricted support provided to schools, units, departments or divisions. Thus, unrestricted grants made to these institutional units can be received and used to support mission-related activities.
This is a high ethical standard but it is not unique to OHSU. A substantial number of our peer institutions have already adopted this standard and many others are moving in that direction. In addition, this is the standard recommended by most national organizations that promulgate guidance for academic health and science institutions.
We recognize that both the new state law and the draft OHSU policy represent big changes for pharmaceutical companies that do business with OHSU. As we examine the state law in all its complexity, however, we see a very real possibility of inadvertent non-compliance. For that reason, our executive leadership and integrity team strongly encourage the adoption of the higher ethical standard immediately. For more information on the law and current ethical guidance, please visit the following OHSU web page: http://www.ohsu.edu/cc/gifts/gift_policy.shtml
If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Gary Chiodo, Chief Integrity Officer, or Dr. Kara Drolet, Manager for Research and Institutional Integrity, at 503-494-8849 or .
Sincerely,