September 7, 2018

Council Award Recipient – Dr. Jason Malinowski

Dr. Jason Malinowski, a family physician from Barry’s Bay, was presented with the Council Award at the September meeting of Council.

Dr. Malinowski has distinguished himself as a clinical leader and is credited with developing programs and systems that have contributed to the continuous improvement of the region’s integrated health system.

Dr. Malinowski received his medical degree at Queen’s University where he also did residencies in family medicine and palliative care. Almost immediately upon receiving his qualifications, Dr. Malinowski moved to Barry’s Bay, a village in eastern Ontario, to fulfill his ambition to be a rural family physician.

In addition to his private medical practice, Dr. Malinowski is the Chief of Staff at the St. Francis Memorial Hospital where he co-led the creation of the Madawaska Valley Hospice and Palliative Care Program, one of the first Ontario hospices within a public hospital. He now serves as the Program medical director and he has the same role at the Valley Manor Long-Term Care Home. 

We speak to Dr. Malinowski in the upcoming issue of Dialogue.

New Registrar Identifies Areas of Focus

In her first report to Council, Dr. Nancy Whitmore, Registrar and CEO, discussed two high priority areas for the College - the handling of complaints, and the enhancement and modernization of our communication platform. 

Complaints

The College receives approximately 2700 public complaints annually. These are of varying complexity. The Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee (ICRC), on average, takes no action in 65% of cases they review. The current complaints process will be changed to stream more low-risk matters to early resolution and enable ICRC panels to focus on more serious matters. Refocusing on early resolution where possible should also offer faster service, increase complainant and physician satisfaction, and reduce overall time to resolution.

Staff has already begun to work on: revitalizing the Intake area to respond to complaints within two business days; initiating an Alternative Dispute Resolution process; and introducing a medical complaints director to review all written complaints for assessment and streaming to resolution or investigation using defined criteria.  

An article about these changes will appear in the next issue of Dialogue.

Communications Planning

A new approach to communication is underway to support CPSO’s transformational changes to investigations and other core regulatory processes, and to modernize and enhance our communications products and activities. In particular, the focus of our plan in 2018/19 is on enhancing and modernizing the website and Dialogue, including evolving the latter from a print-based magazine to a digital format where information is current, dynamic and easy to access. 

New Direction for Opioid Strategy

Council has approved a new direction in its opioid strategy – one that puts the focus squarely on the promotion of quality improvement. 

This revised strategy will see us putting more of our energies into ensuring that physicians have the information and tools to prescribe appropriately. This includes providing physicians with feedback in their assessments, encouraging physicians to access their own prescribing data and promoting educational resources.

The College is not making an additional request for data from the Narcotics Monitoring System at this time. We will, however, continue to respond to prescribing issues and maintain a clear position and approach to opioids issues.

Development of Strategic Plan  

Council began discussions on the development of a new strategic plan, given that the current plan ends in 2018. 

The key components of the process will include internal and external consultations, an environmental scan, and a facilitated session with Council to develop the strategic priorities. The proposed approach would involve retaining external expertise for key elements of the process (e.g., consultation and facilitation), but rely on existing structures and staff support for the majority of the work.

Further discussion will take place at December’s Council meeting. It is expected that the development of a strategic plan will be completed by May 2019.

CPSO Governance Review

Council continues to move forward with discussions about making governance change to the College. 

At its meeting, Council supported the following governance principles: Accountability, Adaptability, Competence, Diversity, Independence, Integrity and Transparency.  

Council also considered and was supportive of preliminary recommendations for governance reform (those that could be made without legislative change and those that could not). Council will consider recommendations for governance reform in December.

Anne Coghlan, Registrar and CEO of the College of Nurses of Ontario, provided Council with an update on the status of the CNO’s efforts to help realize governance change.

Delegating Statutory Powers 

Council has approved a by-law that provides express authority for the Registrar to delegate statutory powers. The by-law provides added protection to the current practice of delegating the Registrar’s powers when the Registrar is unavailable.

General By-law Amendments

Council approved circulating amendments that revise certain General By-law provisions relating to the public register and mandatory reporting. The proposed bylaw will address duplications and inconsistencies with the new legislative and regulatory provisions passed under Bill 87 on May 1, 2018. The General By-law already provided for most of Bill 87’s new posting and mandatory reporting provisions, but there are some differences in scope and in language.

Consultations Underway – Have Your Say

Disclosure of Harm

The CPSO’s Disclosure of Harm policy is now open for preliminary consultation in accordance with our policy review cycle. Please provide your feedback by the November 13, 2018 deadline.

Joint Consultation

The CPSO is undertaking a joint preliminary consultation on the following three (3) policies: Anabolic Steroids, Substances, and Methods Prohibited in Sport, Female Genital Cutting (Mutilation), and Fetal Ultrasound for Non-Medical Reasons. The purpose of this consultation is to assess whether these policies are useful to physicians and others in health care, and the value of the College providing guidance on these issues.

We urge you to provide feedback by the November 13, 2018 deadline.