Fall 2021
A partnership of Doctors of BC and Ministry of Health
What's New
The Wrap: SSC meeting summary for September.
Spotlight on a specialist
Spotlight on a specialist - Dr Tommy Gerschman
Dr Tommy Gerschman considers leadership to be an integral part of his life. Working as a pediatric rheumatologist out of North Vancouver he has been forging his own leadership path since he graduated from UBC. He sat on several Doctors of BC committees on health policy and was a member of its board from 2016-19, followed by serving as the Specialists of BC President until 2020. Through the years, Dr Gerschman’s voice has grown into being one of the leading advocates for BC’s community-based specialists (CBS).
News and stories
Register now for the Specialists Symposium 2022
A New Day: Emerging priorities in specialty care
Friday, January 21, 2022
The Westin Bayshore Hotel | Vancouver, BC
Register now
Join the 200 specialists and health care partners who have already registered for a full-day symposium to collaborate on how to improve specialty care in a post-pandemic world. Hosted by the Specialist Services Committee and Consultant Specialists of BC, the symposium will have a keynote speaker from the Canadian Medical Association and workshops about cultures, communities, and relationships, processes of care, climate action, and virtual care.
Participating specialist physicians can earn up to 5.5 MOC Section 1 Group Learning credits and up to seven hours of sessional time. Learn more about the Specialists Symposium 2022.
SPOC improves surgical outcomes and experiences
More than 100 specialists and health care partners celebrated the success of the SSC's Surgical Patient Optimization Collaborative (SPOC) at a recent virtual event. SPOC brings together multi-disciplinary team to assist patients prepare for, recover faster, and have better outcomes from surgery.
Not only are patients reporting improved experiences (91%) and better surgical outcomes (86%), participating physicians say they have improved experiences (94%) and increased job satisfaction. There is also data showing reduced costs to the province’s health care system. Read key findings published in the BC Medical Journal or read the detailed reports.
Enroll Now: Level 1 Quality Improvement Training
Join more than 1,100 specialists across the province who have completed quality improvement (QI) training to get hands-on QI experience, lead learning action projects, and contribute to creating a QI culture.
Delivered regionally through health authorities, SSC's Physician Quality Improvement (PQI) initiative offers three levels of training for physicians:
- PQI Level 1: Complete three self-paced online courses (5 hours).
- PQI Level 2: Develop fundamental QI skills in workshops (1-2 day; in-person/virtual).
- PQI Level 3: Engage in interactive lectures, group activities, and workshops, as well as conduct a learning action project (10-12 months; in-person/virtual).
Specialists can get started with Level 1 which is comprised of:
- 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.
- Presentation by Dr Don Berwick: Overview of QI in health care.
Physicians are eligible for five hours of sessional payment upon completion of PQI Level 1 Training.
Enroll in Level 1 by contacting SSC PQI or your health authority PQI team: FHA, IHA, PHSA, NHA, VCH, VIHA.
Specialists and family doctors sponsored to virtually attend IHI forum
The Specialist Services and the Shared Care Committees are pleased to sponsor 100 specialists and 100 family physicians in BC, respectively, via their Physician Leadership Scholarship fund to participate virtually at the IHI Forum from December 5-8, 2021. Deadline to apply is November 5. Read more.
Enhancing Access Initiative decreases patient wait times by an average of 75 days
The Enhancing Access Initiative underwent its first formal evaluation to examine the impact of the program on patients, specialists, and referring providers. Interviewees included physicians, MOAs, and project managers from two of the three cohorts undertaking this work as well as referring providers within the province. Information gathered from Ministry of Health databases and individual specialist electronic health records was also used to inform the evaluation. The evaluation showed that encouraging progress was made to strengthen the referral system as a result of changing to a single entry model. Notably, specialist groups who had completed their projects through their participation in the EAI showed a decrease of Wait 1 times by an average of 69% or 75 days. Read more.
Specialist Services Committee (SSC) Website Improvement Survey
The Specialist Services Committee is continuously trying to improve our website to make it more accessible and user-friendly. Please tell us what you think by filling out a two-minute survey.
News for community-based specialists
In the last couple of years, the SSC has been learning about the unique concerns of community-based specialists to help identify ways to better support their work. One result of this effort has been a pilot program offering community-based specialists free access to PHSA’s Spoken Language Interpreting Services. The service offers specialists spoken language interpreters to facilitate communication between patients with limited English proficiency and health-care practitioners. Interpretation services are available in more than 350 languages, 24 hours a day, seven days a week via in-person and phone across the province. Read more.
News from our partners
Breaking down the complexity of the referral process
Does every consultation require a referral be submitted to MSP? How often does a referral need to be submitted? How do you know if a no-charge referral is reasonable? What happens if a consultant sees a patient who has not been referred? How long does a patient remain a referred case?
If you have been baffled with the complexities of the referral process and have questions such as these, you will be pleased to know that the Tariff Committee’s Consultation Working Group recently undertook a comprehensive review of the current payment rules related to referrals and consultations. The result is a substantial FAQ document answering numerous questions that MSP and Tariff have received over the years. Read more.
About Us
SSC is one of four joint collaborative committees that represent a partnership of Doctors of BC and the Ministry of Health. Formed in 2006 under the Physician Master Agreement to help the Doctors of BC, BC government and health authorities collaborate on the delivery of specialist services and support improvement of the specialist care system in BC.
Physician engagement is the cornerstone of SSC’s work. Sharing your knowledge is important - if you have stories to tell, information to share or feedback to give, please send us an email: sscbc@doctorsofbc.ca