February 2025
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.
MSA Administrator Contracts - New Process
In our continuing effort to enhance financial transparency within Facility Engagement that started last year with updates to FEMS, and to ensure our records continue to be up-to-date, we will require a copy of all Physician Society administrator contracts for the new fiscal year.
Please ensure a copy of all MSA administrator contracts are forwarded to Facility Engagement prior to the start of the new fiscal year on April 1, 2025. This applies to Physician Societies only, as current FESC administrator contracts are already on record.
If new contracts are required, please contact your Engagement Partner for assistance prior to finalizing and submitting.
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
Facility Engagement (FE) Quality Improvement (QI) Training for FE MSA Administrators
Facility Engagement (FE) is excited to be collaborating with the provincial SSC Physician Quality Improvement (PQI) team to offer FE MSA administrators complimentary access to PQI Level 1 training via the online Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Open School platform.
What do you need to know?
- One-time, complimentary professional development opportunity that can be accessed between now and end of fiscal (March 31, 2025) and completed by April 15, 2025.
- Seats offered on a first-come, first-serve basis.
- PQI Level 1 Core Modules take approximately 4 hours of self-directed learning time* and include the following modules:
- QI 101: Introduction to Health Care Improvement
- QI 102: How to Improve with the Model for Improvement
- QI 103: Testing and Measuring Changes with PDSA Cycles
Once you have access to IHI Open School, you will also have full access to the resources, templates, papers, and other self-paced courses available on IHI.
If physicians are interested in the training, please direct them to quality@doctorsofbc.ca to receive access and instructions for sessional payment (5 hours) upon completion.
*Contractor time to participate in training and professional development should not be compensated from Medical Staff Association (MSA) Facility Engagement budgets.
- The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) outlines certain entitlements under the Employment Insurance Act, Canada Pension Plan, and Income Tax Act for employees versus self-employed workers (i.e., contractors). See here for more information about employment status indicators, including training.
- As independent contractors, FE MSA administrators are responsible for the costs of acquiring the necessary training to deliver the needed services for their contracts.
If you are interested in accessing this complimentary training, click here.
Background: This offering is the result of key findings outlined in the Facility Engagement & Physician Quality Improvement Data Consultation. The consultation process explored needs and challenges related to accessing data for FE-funded QI projects as well as understanding support available for QI work.
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
Virtual Knowledge-Sharing Learning Sessions
Facility Engagement has put together several virtual knowledge-sharing learning sessions for FE physicians, MSA administrators, and HA partners.
- Upcoming: Partnerships for Physician Leadership on Thursday, February 6th from 12-1pm PST .
- Vernon Jubilee Hospital: The Physician Leadership Toolkit – Dr Kira McClellan
- University Hospital of Northern BC: Co-Leadership Education Pilot – Dr Denise McLeod
- Burnaby Hospital: Women in Medical Leadership – Dr Julia Stewart
Please share the full FE learning series sessions and registration page with your MSAs and health authority partners, which includes topics such as physician leadership, communications, recruitment and retention, and more. All sessions are UBC CPD accredited for physicians.
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
The Future of Facility Engagement: Summit Progress Report
In preparing for the year ahead, Facility Engagement has reflected on participant feedback gathered from the table discussion at the 2024 Facility Engagement Provincial Summit (see the full Summit Knowledge Sharing Summary here). The Summit's purpose was to reinvigorate our collective commitment to FE, explore opportunities and challenges in our partnerships, and discuss future opportunities. Participants were asked, “What is the top need or opportunity that the Facility Engagement Initiative can support at your site or in your region moving forward?”
This Progress Report outlines actions underway to meet the top ten themes and opportunities identified. We look forward to continuing to work with MSAs, health authority partners, and MSA administrators to help advance our collective priorities.
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
MSA Administrator Contact Information
The Facility Engagement team is often contacted by MSA executives or administrators looking for contact information for other MSAs in order to promote content or put out a call for information.
Due to privacy legislation governing information gathered by Doctors of BC, we are not able to release any of this information without consent.
As this is a common question, we would like to put the question out to all MSA administrators if they are willing to share their email contact information with other MSAs. We would maintain a separate contact sheet with this information and would only provide it to other MSAs upon request.
If you are interested in sharing your information, please contact us directly and include the subject line MSA Administrator Contact List.
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
Budget Workshop
As we approach the end of the fiscal year on March 31st, the Facility Engagement Operations team, in conjunction with PM HelpDesk consultant, Erica Kjekstad, would like to offer a Budgeting 101 workshop to all MSA administrators who might be interested.
Topics that will be covered include:
- Budget forecasting for the new fiscal year
- Engagement activity intake processes
- Quarterly budget management
- Financial overview
The workshop would likely take place in the end of February, and would be recorded for those who are not able to attend. Please email the FE office with your interest by February 15th to ensure you are included in the session.
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
Knowledge Sharing Highlights
- East Kootenay Regional Hospital engaged to improve acute care discharges by increasing hospitalist physicians understanding of how patients are approved, processed, and discharged to long term care, short stay beds, or home, and clarifying the role of the Patient Care Coordinator (PCC). See here for more information, including a copy of their slides/process documents.
- FE and Northern Health Physician Quality Improvement (PQI) teams collaborated to offer a learning session on QI and Data Access for MSAs, see here for the recording and summary.
- Cowichan District Hospital arranged an Indigenous-Specific Anti-Racism Training (ISART) course from the UVic Physician Education Program to be offered in the Cowichan Valley for CDH ED staff and has been working to measure change in how Indigenous people experienced care in the ED to guide further education and improvement using the Dynamic Analysis and Reporting Tool (DART) survey. To learn more about their journey, see here.
f you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
December Lunch and Learn
All MSA administrators are invited to join for the next Lunch and Learn on Tuesday, February 11th, 12-1 PST:
- Community building – My Favourite Things – Freebie edition
- Learning Topic – Planning your 2025-26 budget.
Link is here – hope to see you then!
f you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
FEMS Tip of the Month
This month, we are covering a quick update on VoPay administration.
Now that most MSAs have completed their transition from VersaPay to VoPay, we just wanted to let you all know of a difference in the administration of the accounts.
VoPay accounts are all managed centrally by Facility Engagement, with each MSA having their own sub-account. As a result, the ability to access the VoPay administrator portal is restricted at this time to Facility Engagement only due to the information available on the portal.
We recognize that this presents a difference for some MSA administrators who used to have access to VersaPay portals, but are confident that centralizing all administration will result in more efficient problem solving for any issues that may arise, as monitoring occurs on a daily basis.
If you have any questions, please contact femssupport@doctorsofbc.ca.
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 MSA Lunch and Learn sessions from 2022, 2023, and 2024.
If you have any questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.
Did you know...? The Welsh call February "y mis bach" which means "little month".
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.