VPSA board and staff meet monthly with VCH senior leaders. The focus of the June meeting was our common interests of diversity, equity and inclusion and the implementation of CST, along with a quick update about VCH’s plans to develop a region-wide orientation for new medical staff.
DEI update
The Self-Identification & Workplace Experience Survey launched recently and will be open until later this month. All staff are encouraged to participate as the information collected will help VCH understand the state and needs of its workforce and the work environment as experienced by survey participants. More information on the survey is available here.
Drs. Andrea Brovender and Lynn Straatman gave an overview of the VCH Medical Staff Diversity Survey that was conducted in fall 2020. A report on that survey was recently completed and Drs. Brovender and Straatman provided highlights.
While the survey’s response rate was low (15% of medical staff participated), rich data was obtained from the qualitative analysis that was used to identify the report’s four themes:
- Lack of diversity in medical leadership
- A culture that lacks tolerance, diversity, and inclusion
- A lack of structures to support medical staff
- Thoughts on VCH DEI efforts
The report includes suggestions on ways to address the concerns raised. Dr. Brovender discussed each of the report’s recommendations. These inspired spirited conversation among the leaders, but given the meeting’s time constraints, it was felt that accountability and performance indicators could be the topic of another meeting. VPSA plans to revisit the recommendations regularly and address the issues raised.
CST update
Dr. David Wilton, Associate Chief Medical Information Officer at Clinical System Transformation, gave a brief update. Hundreds of meetings have taken place to examine workflow and 400 order sets identified that need to be built. Situation integration testing—or SIT—is the next phase and scripts are being written to run simulations to ensure the system works and to address issues when these arise. Desktops and workstations are appearing on the wards and tap and go will be deployed over the summer.
Dr. Fahreen Dossa spoke on behalf of the VPSA CST Task Group. The group, which is seeking more members, has developed its terms of reference and its budget. The group has received one-time funding of $50,000 from Doctors of BC to support activities. A townhall was held in May and another one is planned for the fall. The VPSA monthly physician lunches are showcasing informal demos of workstations. The task group members will continue to collect feedback and concerns and bring these to CST leadership and to explore ways to support members during this important transition. Members who have questions or concerns about CST can submit them here.
Regional Medical Orientation update
VPSA has long advocated for improvement to the onboarding process for new physicians and the board and staff supported the establishment of and are providing funding for a regional medical orientation design group that was struck in December 2021.
Developing a region-wide medical staff orientation will provide standardized information to VCH medical staff and support the communities of care in delivering medical staff orientations without gaps or duplication.
Vancouver Community Senior Medical Director Dr. Michael Norbury spoke on behalf of the group and addressed the work the committee has accomplished in the past couple of months. Sample pages of a draft orientation guide were shared.
The working group will meet again later this month to review and approve the orientation guide and draft an implementation plan. The expectation is the new orientation process will launch this fall.
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the VPSA-SLT will take place on July 14. One of the expected items to be discussed is the collaborative efforts of VCH and the VPSA to help improve physician well-being.