On behalf of the project team, Dr Becky Temple and Crystal Rollings would like to thank everyone for their invaluable contributions and feedback regarding the current Northern Health (NH) medical staff rules. We’ve shared your feedback with the project’s working group and aim to prepare a rough draft of the updated NH medical staff rules in the coming months.
As part of our commitment to inclusion and transparency in our work, we’ve provided a quick summary of the feedback themes and intended actions, answers to a few specific questions, and our next steps below.
Main themes and actions:
Compliance with relevant legislation
- Action: The NH medical staff rules will be revised to align with all relevant legislation (e.g., Hospital Act, Human Tissue Act, etc.).
Call coverage and on-call burden
- Action: These issues are acknowledged as complex and will be addressed, though likely not fully resolved, within the rules.
Definitions and NH leadership titles
- Action: Definitions and titles (e.g., SOOs) will be updated as we work through the document revision process to ensure accuracy and clarity.
- Action: As per the Hospital Act Regulation and the NH bylaws, the NH medical staff rules apply only to “medical staff” which is defined as being limited to physicians, nurse practitioners, midwives, and dentists; allied health professionals and Indigenous / cultural practitioners are not eligible to be medical staff members and are not covered by the NH medical staff rules. We will ensure the medical staff members and are not covered by the NH medical staff rules. We will ensure the medical staff definition and membership is clear in the updated rules.
Indigenous Health practitioners
- Action: While they cannot be classified as medical staff members and are not subject to the NH medical staff rules, collaboration is encouraged. Wording will be developed with assistance of the NH Indigenous Health team to address related concerns within the NH medical staff rules.
Medical Staff Association (MSA)
- Action: The relationship between the MSA defined by the NH Bylaws, NH medical staff rules, and Doctors of BC Facility Engagement MSAs will require further work with engagement and discussion with Facility Engagement MSAs, non-physician medical staff, and NH medical leadership — particularly concerning membership eligibility and representation.
Organization, structure, and readability of the rules - Action: We aim to simplify and reorganize the NH medical staff rules, where possible, and will refer to other BC health authorities’ updated medical staff rules documents for helpful insights.
Specific feedback questions
The following feedback questions will not be addressed in the NH medical staff rules and can be easily answered in this update:
Are pathologists considered medical staff members?
Yes. Pathologists are physicians (medical specialists) and physicians are medical staff members.
Are allied health professionals included in the NH medical staff rules?
Not as medical staff members, but allied health professionals who are not NH employees or contractors may be granted special permissions in some cases under Article 2.9. Allied health professionals who are NH employees or contractors are not covered by the NH medical staff rules.
Why aren’t Clinic Medical Director’s roles included in the NH medical staff rules?
The Clinic Medical Director role is mandated by the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPSPBC) for any multi-physician clinic, whether owned by NH or private. This role is not a NH mandated leadership position and will not be embedded in the NH medical staff rules. Diagnostic accreditation (CSPBC) requirements for Medical Director is similar for each laboratory and diagnostic imaging facility.
Next steps
The project working group is working diligently to review and act on the feedback you’ve shared, consulting with relevant key stakeholders and content experts, reviewing other health authorities’ medical staff rules, and making revisions to the NH medical staff rules.
Our aim is to have a new draft of the NH Medical Staff Rules ready for the fall/winter, which we can then share for review and feedback.
If you have any questions or comments about the NH medical staff rules or this project, please direct them to Dr. Becky Temple becky.temple@northernhealth.ca or Crystal Rollings crystal@cdrconsulting.ca.