From: divisions@bcma.bc.ca

Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 8:58 AM

To: divisions@bcma.bc.ca

Subject: Divisions Dispatch: July News from Provincial Team

The latest news from the provincial team as well as complementary organizations is in this issue of Divisions Dispatch.  We encourage you to share it with your members.

1. Attachment Initiative update

2. CHARD can help find resources for referrals

3. How to ensure privacy when faxing confidential patient information

4. www.divisionsbc.ca and DivIT is growing based on user feedback

5. Provincial Divisions’ Meeting ‘Save the Date’ request

1. Attachment Initiative update

Some recent highlights from the Attachment Initiative:

· Attachment staff engaged with Divisions, PSP, PITO, health authorities and the prototype communities to seek out ways to foster collaboration between the various primary care programs and the prototype communities.

· A group of patients and physicians representing the three prototype communities have begun working together to create ways for both patients and physicians to identify a relationship between a patient and primary care physician.  Mutually acknowledging a relationship between a patient and physician is an important first step in improving patient attachment.  Testing of this draft process will occur in communities in September and October.

· Physicians in the prototype communities have begun applying for payments in recognition of continuous care.  These applications are currently being processed by the prototypes, the Ministry of Health, and the BCMA.  We expect that physicians will begin receiving payments in recognition of longitudinal care by the end of August.

· A retreat was held for the prototype communities, providing an opportunity for deeper sharing and visioning.

If you would like more information about the initiative, contact Kyle Pearce at kpearce@bcma.bc.ca.

2. CHARD can help find resources and referrals – submitted by Brendan Abbott

The Community Healthcare and Resource Directory (CHARD) is a secure, web-based directory containing nearly 30,000 resources designed to assist physicians and their office staff in making more efficient patient referrals. Also a GPSC initiative, the directory was designed by physicians for physicians, with the aim of providing comprehensive information about referral resources both locally and across the province. CHARD contains detailed listings of publicly-funded health services, private service organizations, all specialist physicians, and a variety of allied health professionals in BC. Physicians can access the directory at www.info.chardbc.ca.

Many divisions have already included CHARD as part of their work to improve knowledge and care in a particular clinical area, developing practice efficiencies, or working more collaboratively with specialist physicians. A member of the CHARD team would be pleased to work with your division to share information about the system or provide a presentation or demonstration. Please contact Brendan Abbott at 604-215-7183 or Kristofer Nielsen at 250-952-0725 for more information.

3. How to ensure privacy when faxing confidential patient information

Physician offices that send and receive faxes might be interested to read Best Practices for Sending and Receiving Faxes. The paper was developed by Sara Levine for the Society of General Practitioners of British Columbia. It was also shared with the College of Physicians and Surgeons and is regarded as a useful ‘best practice’ guide for transmitting information by fax. Because the fax machine is used so frequently to send personal health information about patients, physician offices can sometimes forget that they have a legal duty to ensure that the security of the information is maintained. The paper contains some best practices to promote security and confidentiality. Read the paper.

4. www.divisionsbc.ca and DivIT is growing based on user feedback

www.divisionsbc.ca is based on a philosophy of scalability and the web system is continually growing based on members’ needs. Because it is a work-in-progress, we have asked coordinators and members to tell us what they would like to see in the website. The provincial team keeps a running list of these requests and prioritizes them based on the most frequently asked features. Therefore, within the community of divisions, the more members that ask for a particular feature, the sooner it will happen. This feedback will help make the project as useful to you as possible. In future phases of the DivIT rollout, division members will be able to use such third party tools as accounting and live chat. If you have any requests, please contact Tina Chen, Web Support Specialist on tchen@bcma.bc.ca.

5. Provincial Divisions’ Meeting - ‘Save the Date’ request

The next Provincial Divisions’ Meeting will be held in Vancouver on Thursday, October 20 and Friday, October 21.  Please mark your calendars and plan to join us then. More details on times, location and agenda/topics will be sent out at a later date.

Best regards,

The Provincial Divisions Team

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