FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

Attending, Hosting, and Promoting Meetings

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Facility Engagement

Launched by the Specialist Services Committee in 2016, Facility Engagement (FE) is a BC-wide initiative to strengthen communication, relationships and collaboration between facility-based physicians and their health authorities. The goal is to increase meaningful physician involvement in health authority decisions about their work environment and the delivery of patient care.
To get involved:

  1. Get the support of the entire medical staff and the facility’s local administration. If your site has an active MSA (medical staff association) and local support, your Engagement Partner (EP) can help you draft a joint letter of support for submission for start-up funding.
  2. Your facility can then be approved for start-up funding of up to $75,000, to help establish a meaningful, representative governance structure that suits your facility.
  3. Once this structure is in place, your MSA/Society is eligible for annual funding depending on the size of the facility. Start-up funding varies according to size of the facility and number of acute care beds.
  • Compensation for meeting attendance:
    • With approval from the MSA working group, MSA members’ participation at meetings, or a portion thereof, with MSA members and/or health authority partners.
    • MSA members’ attendance at Medical Advisory Committee meetings at the health-authority-wide, regional, and local levels.
  • Advertising:
    • physician recruitment ads
    • internal promotion of MSA activities and meetings
  • Events: events that align with the MOU objectives such as those promoting awareness of and participation in FE activities, and fostering relationship building amongst MSA members and with health authority and community partners.
  • Wellness activities:
    • Support activities that address work environment and organizational risks for increasing physician burnout (e.g., reducing administrative burdens on physicians; improving work flows; improving collegiality among and within work groups such as improving teamwork, communication, and conflict management)
    • Group activities that enhance individual approaches to manage burnout symptoms such as resiliency training can be funded, but sites should consider organizational and work group strategies for reducing risk of burnout as well (e.g., working with health authority partners on reducing paperwork or developing efficient workflows for implementing electronic health records; departmental training on respectful peer -to -peer communication)
  • Eligible expenses (to attend meetings or conferences): all expenses must be accompanied by a receipt. Where receipts are missing, proof of purchase credit card statements will suffice.
    • Meals: Breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner expenses while attending the meeting/event, or spent on travel to and from the meeting/event, are eligible for reimbursement. Meal expenses will be capped at $100 per day. Where a meal is provided free of charge, no claim for that meal can be made
    • Accommodation: A maximum of $220 excluding tax per night is available for accommodation. Between May 1st and September 30th, a maximum of $280 including tax will be available. Accommodation expenses are not eligible for reimbursement where the conference, event or meeting is less than 50km from the claimant’s personal residence. FE funds cannot be used to cover accommodation costs for locum or medical students/resident placements
    • Travel and Vehicle Expense: Travel expenses will be reimbursed for the most expeditious route of travel (e.g., economy airfare, taxis, car rentals, parking costs). Private vehicle mileage will be reimbursed (at the rate set in FEMS via Doctors of BC policy) where one-way travel from the claimant’s personal residence or office exceeds 50km
    • Travel Time: Travel time using the most expeditious route may be paid at the sessional rate for time away from the office during business hours only
    • Parking and registration expenses required for attending the meeting/event
See Funding Guidelines

Email: To connect with the South Island MSA (for VGH and Royal Jubilee Hospital), email [email protected]

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