Authority to sign standard affiliation and program agreements has been delegated to the Deans of each school (for agreements relating to that particular school) and to Karen Sexton, VP and CEO for Hospitals/Clinics (for agreements relating to clinical rotations thru UTMB clinics and hospitals) and to Richard S. Moore, Vice President for Business and Administration (for agreements that have money involved). All non-standard affiliation and program agreements (those that don't follow the exact language of the standard agreement and those that involve money) are reviewed by Legal Affairs and signed by Richard S. Moore, Vice President for Business and Administration.

If you need a standard agreement follow the following instructions:

• All Clinical Departments go through Legal Affairs for signature by Karen Sexton
• School of Medicine go through the Dean of Medicine Office
• School of Nursing go through Marilyn Bradley
• School of Allied Health Sciences go through Dr. Darlene Bordelon
• Residents go through the House Staff Office

The following is a description of the steps required in processing affiliation agreements, program agreements and affiliation letters:

1. Once contact regarding an affiliation has been initiated by the appropriate School or Department, an affiliation agreement should be prepared by the School or Department using the appropriate standard form (either 100A or the reverse terminology form 100C - form 100B should never be used initially and should not be mentioned as an option to the facility unless they demand an indemnification clause in their affiliation agreement. (Legal Affairs should always be consulted prior to sending a form 100B or adding any additional phrase such as an indemnification clause). Also, if a particular department is ready to exchange students under the affiliation agreement (i.e. occupational therapy or physical therapy) a standard program agreement should be completed. If an affiliation agreement already exists with that facility or institution, only a program agreement should be processed.

2. A letter to the facility is prepared by the School or Department and mailed to the facility with the accompanying documentation which includes three (3) original counterparts of the affiliation agreement and three (3) original counterparts of the program agreement as well as three (3) copies of the affidavit to be attached to the affiliation agreement if the agreement is not signed by the President or Chairman of the Board.

3. Upon receipt of the agreements from the facility, the School/Department should check to determine that the agreements have been executed correctly including the affidavit required if someone other than the President or Chairman of the Board has signed. If not, they should be sent back to the facility with a request that they be signed correctly.

4. Once the agreements have been properly executed, the department should add a signature line for the person to whom authority has been delegated. This should be placed on the last page of each agreement under the term "University/UTMB." Then the appropriate person designated for signature should forward all of the original documents for execution. Each designated person, most likely, will have their own departmental way of processing these agreements.  Please obtain these instructions and use that process along with these procedures. 

5. After the agreements have been executed by the designated person one original should be retained by the person signing for UTMB for their file. The remaining two originals are to be forwarded to the School or Department. One fully executed original is sent to the facility and the other original is retained in the Department files. It is the responsibility of each School/Department to retain an original for the University.

Should problems arise during the processing of these agreements, if the facility attempts to negotiate changes in the standard agreement, or a sum of money is involved, Legal Affairs should be contacted immediately. Legal Affairs will review the requested changes and if the changes are deemed acceptable, will attempt to obtain approval for those changes from the Office of General Counsel of the University of Texas System. In instances where the Office of General Counsel denies approval of affiliation agreements containing non-standard language, Legal Affairs will be available to conduct negotiations with the facility upon the request of the School or Department desiring the affiliation.

All non-standard agreements go through Legal Affairs to be processed through the Office of General Counsel and to obtain Richard S. Moore's signature. After Richard Moore has signed the agreement two originals will be returned to the department -- one for the facility and the other for the department.

There are over 800 affiliation agreements already in place. If you wish to determine whether there is an existing affiliation agreement/program agreement you can check with Legal Affairs at 7-8738, or any of the departments listed above.