The BCMA Board and staff have the responsibility of de­veloping and implementing annual plans that ensure you and your 11000 colleagues receive value for your membership. Like all major or­ganizations, the BCMA’s planning process has multiple steps and re­ceives input from many sources. The foundation for all of our plans is our mission, vision, and values, detailed below. 

Upon that foundation a strategic framework is built; the framework looks out over a 3- to 5-year planning timeframe. The BCMA’s strategic ob­jectives are called key result areas, which currently are:

• Excellence in members’ services: En­hance the responsiveness to mem­ber needs 
• Improved physician health and work life 
• Credible and effective advocacy body that influences health system change

They key result areas do not change year to year, but the strategic objectives (numbered items at right) are valid over a 1- to 2-year planning timeframe, and the key strategic activities are the ac­tivities currently underway or planned to meet those objectives. Every year an operational plan is developed and approved by the Board. This plan is then supported through the budgeting process.

In the last two annual reports information on the BCMA’s overarching strategic objectives was provided. In addition to doing that again this year we wanted to provide you with a more detailed review of the key priorities your association is working on now.

I hope you find the information presented here of interest. If you have any questions or comments about the plan, please contact me at president@bcma.bc.ca [10].

—Geoffrey Appleton, MB
President

Key result areas and 2008­­–2009 strategic objectives

Excellence in members’ services: Enhance the responsiveness to member needs
1. Satisfied members whose needs have been heard and, where possible, met
2. Ensure a responsive and credible negotiation, allocation, and fee-setting process
3. Promote efficient, effective, equitable application of payment programs
4. Effective implementation of Phy­sician Master Agreement and subsidiaries
5. Improved BCMA governance process
6. Improved support for and interaction with and between sections

Key strategic activities
• Develop membership guide to the agreements 
• Develop a web-based searchable Fee Guide
• Review the macro/micro allocation processes
• Review negotiation by the Negotiation Forum
• Improve tariff process
• Complete review of the rural programs
• Complete governance review project
• Implement Physician Information Technology Office (PITO) program
• Continue “Medicine Beyond Medicine” series of seminars on non-clinical topics for medical students

Improved physician health and work life
1. Improved physician health and well-being
2.  Improved practice function and professional satisfaction

Key strategic activities
• Support and promote the Physician Health Program
• Work with physicians and health authorities to eliminate barriers to quality care 
• Improve the clinical interface be­tween GPs, specialists, and other health care providers
• Continue to align incentives and practice support with improved professional satisfaction for physicians
• Advocate for decrease of the paperwork and documentation burden on physicians

Credible and effective advocacy body that influences health system change
1. Satisfactory future for physicians in collaborative partnerships 
2. BCMA is acknowledged as an au­thoritative voice on health policy issues and health system redesign
3. Productive relationships with members, government, health authorities, and public

Key strategic activities
• Continue to advocate for new funding for collaborative care, increased access to the health care system, and improved health human resources
• Ensure that patient quality and safety are not compromised by scope of practice changes
• Greater input and influence in the area of pharmacy and therapeutics
• Influence the electronic health agenda and implementation
• Develop new policy initiatives, in­cluding home care and mental health
• Leverage effective relationships with government and health authorities
• Increase regional presence of the BCMA

Our mission: The mission of the BCMA is to promote a social, economic, and political climate in which members can provide the citizens of BC with the highest standard of health care while achieving maximum professional satisfaction and fair economic reward.

Our vision: The BCMA is committed to enhancing the well-being of its members. It seeks to understand the needs of its mem­bers and provide them with value-added products and services which meet their professional and personal needs. The BCMA is an advocate for patients and the profession on key health care issues.

Our values
• Excellence and innovation 
• Recognition and growth
• Ownership and accountability 
• Respect
• Collaboration 
• Honesty and integrity

Ongoing work of your association
The BCMA will maintain its high  levels of physician membership and member satisfaction through focused execution of its core services, which include:
• Responding to member and external inquiries
• Maintaining excellent services in­cluding discounts, insurance, and benefits
• Agreements-related activities
• Practice profiles and audit and billing advice
• Fee Guide administration and fee allocation
• The work of over 70 BCMA and joint committees
• Communications and media relations
• External relations