FE Activities (Current)

The Facility Engagement Initiative is intended to strengthen the relationships and engagement between VJH medical staff and Interior Health Authority leadership.

To support this, the VJH Physician Society was created in 2016. Its Executive and VJHPS Working Group are tasked with finding ways to:

Improve communication and relationships among the medical staff, so their views are more effectively represented.
Prioritize issues that significantly affect physicians and patient care.
Support medical staff contributions to the development and achievement of health authority plans and initiatives that directly affect physicians.
Have meaningful interactions between the medical staff and health authority leaders, including physicians in formal HA medical leadership roles.

With these goals in mind, the following activities have been created and VJH medical staff are encouraged to participate where they have an interest or area of expertise.

Please contact the VJHPS Project Manager to discuss your interest in any of the activities listed below.

To view Facility Engagement activities happening across BC, click to access the searchable online SEAT (Site Engagement Activity Tracker) Database.

Allied Health Education	All Departments	To engage and reimburse medical staff (physicians, midwives and nurse practitioners) in teacher roles, and to provide education for allied health professionals and physicians where no funding for such activity currently exists. Sessional time may be reimbursed up to a maximum of 4 hours for preparation of educational material/instruction for COVID or NON-COVID-19 (includes preparation time.) Completion of the Activity Lead Report form is required.
Centralized Booking for General Surgery (Hernia and Gallbladder)	Surgery	Pilot study to reduce wait times for inguinal and umbilical hernia and gallbladder surgery by booking patients on O.R. slate to first available surgeon AFTER consultation. This is an alternative to “centralized referral” processes. Activity expanded to include gallbladder surgery as of February 2020.
Departmental/Interdepartmental Enrichment Meetings	All Departments	Reimbursement for attending meetings intended to build relationships within and between departments, for the purposes of planning, reviewing, prioritizing, and improving patient and family-centered care and the physicians’ work environment. Click here for eligibility criteria and the DIEM online form . Meeting Lead must complete the online form prior to participants submitting claims for the meeting.
Inter-Society Facility Engagement Sessional Reimbursement	All Departments	Reimbursing VJH physicians to attend other engagement Societies’ activities to build relationships, enhance learning, and improve patient care.
Internal Medicine Perioperative Optimization Clinic	Internal Medicine	Interdisciplinary development of a clinic that formalizes an ad hoc referral pathway to access Internal Medicine assessment, risk reduction, and optimization for complex surgical patients (parallel clinic accompanying the existing Pre-Anesthetic Assessment Clinic conducted by the Department of Anesthesia at VJH).
M & M Catering Reimbursement	All Departments	Reimbursement for catering during M&M Committee meetings. Max $30/person. Expense receipt must be submitted along with record of attendance. Physicians cannot be reimbursed for attendance as M&M rounds are a requirement to maintain hospital privileges.
Physician Lounge Refurbishment	All Departments	Financial support for improving physician areas within the VJH to improve the physicians’ working environment.
Physician Recruitment	All Departments	Reimbursement for recruitment activities that support engagement with prospective candidates, in the form of site visits, facility tours, community tours and social engagement. A maximum of 8 hours of physician sessional time per candidate visit is reimbursable. Expenses not already paid or reimbursed by IH may be claimed up to a maximum of $1000 per candidate site visit (receipts required).
Protecting the Rights of Involuntary Patients under the Mental Health Act		Involuntary admission of patients with mental health disorders presents inherent and profound curtailment of individual rights with significant risks to patients and medico-legal risk to physicians and the Health Authority. The successful outcome and implementation of this project will translate into a sustainable education and monitoring framework that will ensure the protection of individual patient rights, physician, staff and organizational risk to ensure compliance with newly implemented standards in BC.

Reducing Redundant Lab testing	All Departments	To investigate through data collection if there is evidence to suggest whether redundant laboratory testing is a significant problem.
Resuscitation & Simulations (SIMS)	All Departments	VJHPS supports the regular practice of communication, knowledge and skills involved in resuscitation for those who would encounter emergency/resuscitation as part of their scope of practice: improved uptake of Resuscitation Simulations (SIMS) participation for physicians; engagement of physician leads to create and run regular SIMS for colleague physicians and allied health staff; and improved communication between physicians and allied health staff Click here for eligibility criteria and SIMS online form. Leads must complete the online form prior to participants submitting claims for the meeting.
Uncharted / Missed Documents from VJH to Community MDs Review	All Departments	Research to determine the extent of VJH electronic and paper format documents (labs, X-rays, reports) being lost or sent in error to community MDs or in some cases to the wrong MDs, and/or wrong locations.
Uncompensated Committee Work	All Departments	Providing medical staff with an opportunity to be compensated for providing their expertise at committee meetings is a priority for VJHPS. The Uncompensated Committee Work Activity is to reimburse sessional time for physician attendance working on IH quality committees (COVID and Non-COVID-19 meetings). Click to read full guidelines.