PSP supports for quality improvement activities: Refreshed compensation policy, simplified certification process

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 61, No. 10, December 2019, Page 401 Family Practice Services Committee

The GPSC recognizes that doctors and health care team members invest significant time to ensure that practices run smoothly and efficiently. As family practice teams expand, practices are increasingly focused on quality improvement (QI) activities. To better support this work, the Practice Support Program (PSP) has updated how it compensates and certifies family physicians and eligible team members who engage in eligible QI activities.

Refreshed compensation policy

Based on physician feedback, PSP has refreshed the way GPs and team members are compensated for QI activities. Effective 15 June 2019, each eligible team member in a practice can receive compensation for up to 15 hours of work for participating in any eligible QI activity (for information on eligible and non-eligible QI activities visit www.gpscbc.ca/what-we-do/professional-development/psp). Team members eligible for compensation for QI activities include MOAs, allied health providers in private practice, and allied health providers employed by a GP practice. Team members who are employed or compensated by a health authority are ineligible.

For increased efficiency, doctors can now submit one form to claim a sessional payment for the hours spent on QI activities, and PSP team members are available to support doctors and practice teams to track their time throughout the process.  

Simplified certification process

Effective 1 November 2019, PSP introduced a simplified certification process to replace the existing process for PSP learning modules, PSP small group learning sessions, and the GPSC patient medical home assessment (doctors currently participating in these services will not be affected). The new process will offer more credits, increased flexibility, and alignment with PSP’s updated compensation policy, detailed above.

The process will enable family doctors to earn up to three credits per hour, for up to 15 hours (maximum of 45 Mainpro+ credits) for activities including in-practice visits with an RST or physician peer mentor, development and implementation of action plans, and participation in PSP’s learning sessions.

In-practice coaching and mentoring

PSP Regional Support Teams (RST) and physician peer mentors are available to guide practices through a facilitation cycle that supports them in undertaking QI activities covered by the new compensation policy and new certification process. The facilitation cycle can help practices maximize efficiencies through activities like identifying changes in practice workflow, developing proactive patient recalls for common tests, and using data (including patient experience data) to inform practice improvements.

For more information contact a PSP Regional Support Team (see below), or email psp@doctorsofbc.ca.
—Alana Godin
Director, Community Practice and Quality, Doctors of BC


PSP Regional Support Teams

Fraser Health: psp@fraserhealth.ca
Interior Health: psp@interiorhealth.ca
Northern Health: liana.doherty@northernhealth.ca
Vancouver Coastal: pspsupport@vch.ca
Vancouver Island Health: rsp@viha.ca

hidden


This article is the opinion of the GPSC and has not been peer reviewed by the BCMJ Editorial Board.

Alana Godin. PSP supports for quality improvement activities: Refreshed compensation policy, simplified certification process. BCMJ, Vol. 61, No. 10, December, 2019, Page(s) 401 - Family Practice Services Committee.



Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

Leave a Reply