May 2024
The monthly E-News shares provincial program information and updates about the Facility Engagement program. This information will be of interest to Medical Staff Association (MSA) support teams, but please feel free to forward the newsletter to your MSA executives as well.
NEW: FE Evaluation Survey Launch – May 1
On May 1, Facility Engagement launched the FE evaluation survey for medical staff and health authority leaders as part of the provincial evaluation of the FE Initiative. The following groups received a personalized survey invitation from the external evaluation consultant, Ference & Company, on Wednesday, May 1st:
- All medical staff members registered in FEMS (including physicians, dentists, midwives, and nurse practitioners).
- MSA/physician society executives.
- Local and broader HA partners who are actively working with MSAs/physician societies.
This survey is separate from the Doctors of BC’s annual Health Authority Engagement Survey or biennial Benchmark Member Survey. The FE evaluation survey will focus on measuring the FE Initiative’s outcomes, and the aggregate results of the survey will be used to support ongoing learning and improvement opportunities for the FE Initiative as well as to communicate the impacts of the initiative to partners at a facility, health authority and provincial level.
On May 15th, MSA administrators will receive an email from the provincial office that they can forward to their membership, reminding MSA members of the survey link and May 31st deadline. We encourage MSAs to actively promote this survey to their membership and networks to capture broader perspectives, including those who may be less active in MSA/physician society activities.
The public survey link is available for you to share here: SURVEY LINK
For more information, please refer to Evaluation Overview and Evaluation Survey FAQ documents.
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
NEW: FEMS Help Desk Closures
The Facility Engagement team will be out of office from Tuesday May 7th to Thursday May 9th to attend the Doctors of BC team conference and meetings. FEMS Help Desk responses will be delayed during this time.
Additionally, the FEMS Help Desk will be fully offline from Friday, May 10th, to Monday, May 20th. For urgent and critical technical help during the week, please email engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
Erica Kjekstad, our PM Help Desk consultant, is also able to help solve some of the most frequently asked questions and non-technical concerns. She can be reached at pmhelpdesk@facilityengagement.ca.
Finally, please check our website for the most up to date resources that cover common processes and procedures that FEMS administrators use.
If you have any questions, please contact femssupport@doctorsofbc.ca.
NEW: Facility Engagement Promotional Materials and Key Messaging
Facility Engagement has developed new promotional materials and refreshed our key messaging on the website, including Frequently Asked Questions, that sites can use for updating their own websites and medical staff FE onboarding documents.
These materials include:
- An overview of FE participant roles
- A one-page orientation to FE
- FE opportunities and supports for QI
- Regional Hand-outs
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
FYI: FEMS Updates Now Completed
April has come and gone and the full set of updates has now been deployed into FEMS. The full breakdown of the updates can be accessed via this linked communication from February and March, as well as the FAQ from April.
Here are a few tips to remember as we navigate these updated workflows:
- When a new supplier is created using the Add New Supplier option in the supplier claims form, the supplier needs to be reviewed and approved by an MSA executive before claims can be approved.
- For existing suppliers, when first adding a supplier claim, the Declare Relationship Status pop-up will show to enter the two questions that have been added to the supplier profile.
- The button Submit an Expense is now exclusively for physician expenses. For supplier expenses, the button Submit Supplier Expense must be used.
- The Approvals menu tab is now available for use by MSA administrators and executives, including the Bulk Claims Approval screen for MSA executives. NOTE: The two supplier questions must have been answered in order for the claims to appear in the bulk approval screen.
- There are additional expenses categories available in the expense type dropdown (e.g. Taxi/Uber/Transit).
- All IOE expenses are now required to be entered in FEMS as a supplier claim, and approved by an MSA executive or administrator. There are expense types for each category of IOE.
- On April 30th at midnight, all previous fiscal year engagement activities were automatically closed in FEMS. Any remaining budget from these engagement activities was returned to the unallocated budget amount and can be viewed in the financial overview section in FEMS. Note that any claims from the previous fiscal year that have not been entered and are still eligible claims (within 90 days of the activity) will have to be claimed against an engagement activity in the current fiscal year.
For full tip sheets on these and other FEMS processes, please visit the resources page on the FE website.
If you have any questions, please contact femssupport@doctorsofbc.ca.
FYI: Knowledge Sharing Update
There are new ideas and activities on the knowledge sharing portal this month, including
- Recruitment & Retention partnerships at Bella Bella.
- Increasing surgical capacity at Haida Gwaii.
- Partnering with Primary Care Network to support CHF patients at Peace Arch Hospital.
- Demystifying Health Authority equipment purchasing processes at Langley Memorial Hospital.
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
FYI: May Lunch and Learn
Our next MSA Administrator Lunch and Learn will be on Tuesday, May 21st, 12-1 PDT.
Community building:
- How do we build on the connections we made at the Summit?
Learning Topics:
- Doctors of BC Business Pathways Information Session - Ashley Buswell
- How my workflows have changed with the FEMS updates - Erica
Link is here – hope to see you then!
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
TIP: PM Helpdesk Lunch and Learn Library
The FE provincial office, in conjunction with the PM Helpdesk Consultant, Erica Kjekstad, have created a library document of all of the past Lunch and Learn sessions from 2022 and 2023.
The 2024 library document is now live and will continue to be updated each month with current information.
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca
Do you have ideas on future e-news topics?
Please let us know at engagement@doctorsofbc.ca
engagement@doctorsofbc.ca I www.facilityengagement.ca
Facility Engagement is an initiative of the Specialist Services Committee, one of four joint collaborative committees that represent a partnership of the Government of BC and Doctors of BC.
Want to learn what’s happening in your community?
Check out the Divisions Dispatch, an e-newsletter published by the Divisions of Family Practice initiative which is funded by the Family Practice Services Committee.