Division Spring Social - March 29th - RSVP!

We would like to invite you and your partner or guest to spend an evening with your colleagues for dinner and entertainment at Cuckoo's Trattoria in Coombs. 

It's been an interesting year for the Oceanside Division of Family Practice, and as we go into Spring, we will be welcoming some newer physician members and Division staff, and saying farewell to others - this is a great chance to relax, have a fantastic Cuckoo's meal, be entertained, and get to know some of your newer colleagues that you may not have had a chance to connect with in this past year. 

We look forward to warmly welcoming you and your partner to this fun - and delicious - event!   If you would like to attend, please RSVP to Sharon Todd and she will add you to the list!

Dr. Lapp/Dr. Letcher Referrals

Dr. Tim Lapp has joined our Oceanside community from Huntsville, Ontario, and some of you had a chane to meet him in early March and his and Dr. Letcher's CME breakfast presentation.  Dr. Lapp’s focus on Peripheral Nerve Disorders and Spasticity Management will be an excellent complement to Dr. Letcher’s practice and they are excited to be able to offer such comprehensive out-patient physiatry service to the Central Island. 

Dr. Lapp will be working one week at a time every three months, and his first week was February 27-March 3.  

Referrals for Dr. Lapp or Referrals for Dr. Letcher are ready to be accepted and can be requested from Dr. Letcher at (250) 594-4904 or from oceansideadmin@divisionsbc.ca.

Introduction to Psychiatrist Dr. Samantha Saffy

6 March 2017

Dear GP/NP Colleagues,

I am writing to introduce myself and start a conversation about ongoing collaborative care of your patients with mental health concerns.  My daughter and I relocated to the Oceanside area from the Lower Mainland at the end of December 2016 and I have taken a full-time general adult psychiatrist position at Oceanside Health Centre.  Yes, I do plan to stay - I've bought a home and don't wish to move again soon..

You have all been doing a stellar job managing the psychiatric needs of this community in the absence of a full-time psychiatrist.  Having been a GP earlier in my career, I appreciate just how challenging the past few years must have been for you.  My hope is that we can establish the type of working relationship where a conversation about care of mutual patients is a phone call away. 

Currently, my clinic wait time for initial assessment is 6 months.  My goal is to reduce this to 10-12 weeks by clarifying referral criteria and offering telephone support and medication advice for those patients who do not necessarily require a full in-person assessment.  I have found this to work well in other clinic settings.  You get the information you need to be able to provide timely care for your patients, and we ensure that the most unwell patients get psychiatric assessment and care sooner rather than later. 

Enclosed please find a quick referral guideline. I am happy to discuss patient referrals on a case by case basis.

I look forward to working with you.

Samantha Saffy

MBChB, FC Psych(SA), FRCPC

SGP Billing Workshop: The Dollars and Sense of Family Practice

Do you know any new in practice doctors who could benefit from some billing education?

Registration has now opened for the popular annual SGP Billing Workshop: The Dollars and Sense of Family Practice

Location: St Paul’s Hospital
Date and Time: April 29, 9-4

Topics include:
• Basic office billing for new in practice physicians
• GPSC Billing
• Uninsured Billing
• Obstetrics Billing
The registration details are posted here.  Please feel free  to forward this information to any physicians you think would be interested in learning more about billing.

Oceanside Locums

We have a number of locums working in the Oceanside area, and they are booking up for 2017!  Please submit your locum requests to Sharon Todd to ensure you get coverage for your practice ASAP.

You can check out the current locum listings on our website!

GPSC June Summit/Meeting Summary

Please

SAVE THE DATES

June 18 and 19, 2017

for the GPSC June Summit

at Sheraton Wall Centre, Vancouver

GPSC Meeting Summary

February 28, 2017

Please find here the February GPSC meeting summary. This month’s key updates are about:

• Impact funding
• Sessional guidelines
• Incentive program
• Opioid overdose public health emergency
• Role of GPSC representatives at CSC meetings
• Work plan and budget update

IM/IT Webinar - Health Data Coalition

Good morning Physicians, 

This is a kind reminder that you have until Wednesday, March 15 to sign up for the next upcoming IM/IT Webinar on March 22.

We have now confirmed our next topic/presenters for the Physician Engagement IM/IT Webinar Series.  If you are interested in attending, the instructions and details are below. 

Topic:                                    Health Data Coalition (HDC)
http://hdcbc.ca

Presenters:                        Dr. Tracy Monk, Dr. Bruce Hobson & Dr. Bill Clifford

The Health Data Coalition (HDC) is an independent, not-for-profit organization governed by physicians for physicians.
The HDC has developed a secure, centrally hosted, web-based application to enable aggregation of data across a breadth of EMR platforms from all over the province.  The privacy protected HDC infrastructure will enable doctors to participate in quality improvement activities within a trusted and secure platform.

Date:                                     Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Time:                                    7:00 am – 8:00 am via GoTo Webinar
                                               

​(Test your system here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/join/406552062)                    

ACTION TO ATTEND
RSVP:                                   

​​​​​Please respond to this e-mail by Wednesday, March 15 and let us know that you are interested in attending this particular Webinar.   We will then share the link to the Go To meeting and instructions in a follow up e-mail by Monday, March 20. 
With the invite we will share a list of names of physicians who have signed up so that you know who the audience will be. Please let us know if you do not wish your name to show on the attendee list.  Please note that one you registered, the meeting link to the webinar will be send out by a Divisions webinar e-mail, not by DTO.

Purpose:                           

The purpose of the IM/IT webinars is to get physician feedback on provincial/regional projects/programs in BC. The gap reported by physicians and stakeholders has been the need to ensure more community level clinical input into projects that affect MDs.
The webinars are being designed so that MDs have some protected space to give feedback and be engaged by stakeholders in IM/IT.

Agenda & format:           10 mins – Welcome & Introductions
20 mins – Presentation & Overview of project/program
20 mins – Discussion & Feedback
10 Mins – Wrap up & Next steps

---------------------------------------------------------

Step-by-Step Naltrexone Guide Now Available

PCSS-MAT clinical experts have recently created a virtual step-by-step XR-Naltrexone User Guide to assist you in your practice in treating opioid use disorder (OUD). XR-Naltrexone is one of the FDA approved medications for the treatment of OUD.

This guide provides step-by-step instructions from obtaining patient history and transitioning to treatment, to follow-up and throughout continuum of care. The guide includes a number of templates for evaluation and follow-up visits that clinicians can use in their daily practice, as well as a handout for patients and families. Also, an algorithm is included to assist the clinician in determining whether the patient is ready to receive the naltrexone injection and recommendations for using adjunctive medications. 

Share this link and/or download a copy to share.

PCSS-MAT would like to acknowledge Drs. Adam Bisaga and Sandra Springer for their vital role in creating this guide. For more information contact PCSS-MAT.

Interactive PCSS Projects Brochure:

https://indd.adobe.com/view/77b2f6d4-1a5d-4d6e-a7b4-169c6f3fb32f

Poverty Intervention Tool

Put patient poverty on your radar…

“There is strong and growing evidence that higher social and economic status is associated with better health. In fact, these two factors seem to be the most important determinants of health.”
– Public Health Agency of Canada1

Three steps to address poverty:
1. Inquire about poverty when screening all patients.
2. Include poverty as a health risk factor.
3. Intervene to address poverty-related issues.

This is a great info sheet developed by the Kootenay Boundary Division, containing a wealth of determinants of poverty and helpful links for practitioners.

https://divisionsbc.ca/CMSMedia/WebPageRevisions/PageRev-3226/KB-Poverty-2014-Final_PE.pdf

Free Chronic Pain Self-Management Workshops on Vancouver Island

We have attached a link to this flyer for Self Management of Chronic Pain that you may wish to print out and post in your practice - locations all over Vancouver Island.

Free Six-Session Workshops for Adults

 Learn techniques to better manage your health
 Set goals and problem solve
 Communicate more effectively with your family, friends and health care team
 Deal with stress and difficult emotions
 Take action and live a healthier life

Family Members and Friends Welcome - Registration Required

New Forward House Website

The Forward House Community Society is pleased to announce the launch of their new website...

https://www.forwardhouse.com/

Divisions in the News

See what is going on in other divisions around BC:

https://www.divisionsbc.ca/provincial/inthenews