December 2022

The monthly E-News shares provincial program information and updates about the Facility Engagement (FE) Initiative. This information will be of interest to Medical Staff Association (MSA) support teams, so please feel free to forward the newsletter to your MSA executives as needed. 

FE Payment Deadline for 2022

The deadline for submission of any physician society gate requests for payment in December 2022 is TODAY, December 7th at 4pm.  

Any requests received by the deadline will be processed for payment on Thursday, December 15th.

Requests received after the deadline will be processed for payment in the new year, starting on January 12, 2023.

If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca

FE Financial Reporting Deadline

ACTION: Financial reporting deadline: January 31, 2023.

MSA physician societies are required to reconcile their financials quarterly at minimum to ensure accurate financial reporting and budgeting. This also ensures that the FE program has accurate information on program spending. 

Physician societies only are requested to provide the following documents within 30 days of the end of each quarter.

• Balance sheet.
• Income statement from your accounting software*.  

*If you are using QuickBooks, the external financial system report is called the Profit and Loss Report and for Sage users it is called the Balanced Income Statement.

• Please send the above documents to engagement@doctorsofbc.ca by January 31st
• For additional reconciliation support, please refer to the Facility Engagement website.

If you are unable to meet the deadline or require further support, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.

Doctors of BC Holiday Office Closure

Doctors of BC offices will be closed from Friday, December 23 to Monday, January 2, inclusive. Regular office hours will resume on Tuesday January 3, 2023.

The next issue of Monthly E-News will be in February 2023.

Best wishes for a safe and healthy holiday season and a happy new year!

Messaging for Physicians Considering The Switch to VoPay

Now that the new payment processor for FEMS, VoPay, has been launched, the FE provincial office has developed messaging for MSAs to use to promote the service to their physician members. Please feel free to use the messaging below, or customize it to your specific members.

(MSA name) is in the process of transitioning to a new payment platform in FEMS. A banner with a link to VoPay will appear in FEMS when you log in. The link in the banner will take you to a sign up page to identify the bank account to the new processor. One of the benefits of VoPay is that no banking information is saved. This new system uses a token to link to your bank account, making it both anonymous and secure.

Another benefit is the potential cost savings to (MSA name) in the form of reduced transaction fees. The change process should take less than five minutes and must be done using the online version of FEMS rather than the app on your smartphone. Please contact (administrator name) if you have any questions or would like additional guidance in registering.

If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca

Doctors of BC Physician Demands Policy Paper Available

Since 2019, Doctors of BC had been engaging with members on the topic of physician demands. The Doctors of BC Policy team has published a full-length paper on the topic, outlining recommendations and commitments the organization is making in an effort to reduce physician burdens.  

Doctors of BC carried out its sixth annual Health Authority Engagement Survey, an important tool for informing our advocacy work on behalf of BC physicians. Among other recommendations, it outlines a new strategy for health care stakeholders (including Doctors of BC) to evaluate existing, new, or potential demands on physician time--ensuring that delivering quality patient care remains the cornerstone.

Using this new framework, the Burdens Solutions Tool, stakeholders can help to avoid the introduction or continuation of duplicative and unnecessary tasks to physician workloads.

Doctors of BC encourages MSA support teams and executives to share this information with their respective groups, to raise awareness of Doctors of BC’s continual efforts to engage our members,

If you have any questions, please contact policyandplanning@doctorsofbc.ca   

Physician Health Program Launches Peer Support Initiative for BIPOC Physicians

In recent years, awareness of racial inequities, and their effects on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of colour) physicians has grown. These BIPOC doctors are impacted in a variety of ways, from more subtle challenges to overtly discriminatory behaviours from patients, physician colleagues, and other health care professionals. Doctors of BC’s Physician Health Program is launching a new virtual peer support group for BIPOC physicians in the new year

Please visit the registration page for more information. If you have any questions about the initiative, please contact programs@physicianhealth.com

 The establishment of this program is possible in part thanks to funding from the JCCs; as well as from Scotiabank, MD Financial Inc, and the CMA as part of the new Physician Wellness+ Initiative, which aims to support doctors across Canada through new and enhanced services over the next four years.

Upcoming MSA Administrator Lunch and Learn

Another year of Lunch and Learns comes to a close.  Thank you to everyone who has made this the (virtual) place to be on Tuesday lunchtimes!

We’re getting ready for another great year of Lunch and Learns, with our next scheduled on Tuesday, January 17^th, 12.00 – 13.00 PST.  We’ll catch up with each other after the winter break, and will review some Best Practices for MSA administrators, to inspire your Work New Year’s Resolutions.  Sarah will also join us for a VoPay update, so bring your questions!

If you have great ideas for topics for our community building and/or learning time together, please let me know at pmhelpdesk@facilityengagement.ca – I’d love to hear from you!

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season, and all the best for 2023!

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 2021.

The 2022 library document is now live and will continue to be updated each month with current information.  The November 2022 session on Making AGMs Special, as well as Assessing Project Proposals is included.

If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca