March 2024 Newsletter

WHAT'S NEW?

The Kudos Project

Grab a jolt of java or calming herbal tea from Amplified Cafe or The Cracked Pot on March 1 and receive a unique designer coffee sleeve compliments of local children from daycare to grade eight.

March 1 is National Employee Appreciation Day and 3000 children from Vernon, Lavington, Lumby and as far away as Cherryville decorated coffee sleeves that include messages of gratitude to healthcare workers. (Please see poster for the list of participating schools.) Physicians and other VJH staff hope to do presentations on careers in healthcare at some of these schools later in the year.

This community kudos project was initiated by Dr. Yann Brierley and his dyad partner Alicia Ponich, Director VJH Surgical Services, as part of a larger hospital-wide Kudos project launched in partnership with VJH Physician Society, VJH Foundation and Amplified Cafe. Physicians are supplied with Kudos Cards enabling them to recognize and celebrate any hospital employee for: going the extra mile; creating positivity; supporting the team; speaking up; sharing their zen; showing kindness. The awarding physician fills out the Kudos Card and the recipient redeems the card for a hot beverage at Amplified Cafe. This feel-good project was launched mid-January and more than 50 hospital workers have already enjoyed recognition for their valuable contributions. 

CME Grand Rounds

Who: MSA members and hospital administration from any site are welcome

When: March 14, 2024

Where: Zoom

Presenter: Dr. Jennifer Thomas

What: "Musculoskeletal mimics of Cervical Radiculopathy"

VJH General Medical Staff Meeting (GMS)

The GMS meeting, Tuesday, April 9th at 6 pm at Prestige Vernon Lodge, will be an interactive, strategic planning dinner meeting. Share your ideas and insights and help your MSA and VJH Physician Society set priorities and goals for the coming year.

Childcare for Healthcare Workers

In Vernon, there are currently 48 licensed childcare spaces per 100 children ages 0 to 5. This figure does not take into account children over age five requiring after school care. Interior Health in Vernon employs just under 3000 employees and medical personnel. Lack of childcare impacts the ability of Interior Health to recruit and retain staff, ultimately affecting patient care in our community.

VJH Physician Society and MSA, VJH Foundation, YMCA and Arrowleaf Real Estate have submitted a funding application, prepared by the YMCA, to the provincial ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund to build a childcare facility as part of the Kalamalka Lake Road development project. If the funding proposal is accepted, the provincial government will pay for the cost of building the facility, less 10 per cent. This childcare facility will provide 160 childcare spaces with a minimum of 80 of these spots reserved for healthcare workers. The remainder will be reserved for Kal-Tire employees as Kal-Tire owns the land the facility will be built upon.

Arrowleaf will build the childcare facility at a cost of approximately $3.8 million and will manage the property. Arrowleaf will provide the YMCA with a 15 year renewable lease to manage the facility. The VJH Physician Society/MSA and VJH Foundation will raise the required 10 per cent of the project cost or $380,000.

According to MSA by-laws, in order to submit the letter of intent to raise the required funds, approval from a minimum of 35 MSA members is required. A survey was circulated to all MSA members. Of the 79 respondents, 60 said they were in favour of VJH Physician Society and MSA raising funds for the childcare initiative; eight were opposed and 11 undecided. When asked if they would be personally willing to financially support this initiative, 44 said yes, 15 said no and 20 were undecided.

Notification of application approval should be received by the end of March. If approved, the Physician Society and Foundation will be meeting in April to map out a fundraising strategy. Anyone interested in being part of this project, please contact Sharon at: programdirector@vernonphysiciansociety.ca

April

27

SAVE THE DATE!

The Golden Gala -- an elegant evening of dancing, casino games (using play money!), prizes and more -- is the place to be Saturday, April 27 at the Prestige Vernon Lodge.

VJH Physician Society and SNO Division of Family Practice are teaming up to host this fancy physician event. Watch for early bird tickets beginning next week. Companions are welcome. 

March

9

Join us for a low key ski day!

Meet at 8:45am at the Gondola!

Please text Dr. Shannon Rourke if you would like to join - (604) 996-0507.

If you can't make it for 8:45am, no problem. Silverstar's new app can show you where the group is so you can find them easily! Let Dr. Rourke know and she will add you to the ski tracker.

Dr. Misha Horkoff, Dr. Karl Langer, Dr. Shannon Rourke and other friends

IMPORTANT!

Fiscal year end is March 31. All FEMS claims need to be in by April 15th, 2024!!! If you do not submit your claims prior to that date you will not be paid.

Advocating for you: Preparing for the next Physician Master Agreement



The Physician Master Agreement (PMA) affects every doctor in BC – it impacts your compensation and benefits and provides you with important contractual protections. To best prepare Doctors of BC for the upcoming negotiations of the 2025 Physician Master Agreement (PMA), we need to know what’s important to you. 

On February 15, eligible members received an email inviting your participation in our Physician Master Agreement Survey. This survey is a vital tool that seeks your input into how funding in the 2025 PMA should be directed and informs us of your top considerations and views on other key issues which will be used to inform our PMA bargaining priorities.

The email invitation came from Doctors of BC, with the subject line “Doctors of BC Negotiations Survey: Share your priorities,” and included a link to the survey. If you did not receive your invitation or have any questions regarding the survey, please email surveys@doctorsofbc.ca. The deadline for input is 11:59pm on March 14, 2024.

Environmental Sustainability

at Vernon Jubilee Hospital

Did you know that VJH has an Environmental Sustainability Committee? With healthcare in Canada contributing nearly 5% towards the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, we want to be part of finding solutions to bring that number down. 

VJH now has a site wide battery recycling program. While seemingly straightforward, we needed to provide a safe way for staff to dispose of batteries without creating a fire risk. There are now disposal boxes located all over the site to recycle the batteries used in so many of our devices. 

Vernon is also one of two hospital sites actively engaged in the IH Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI) Pilot Project. This was identified by the Regional Planetary Health Table for Physicians as an area that has potential for large impact. We are currently analyzing 5 year data for MDI usage to understand where our areas of improvement might be. When we look at one salbutamol inhaler (Teva brand) as equivalent to 39km driven in a regular gasoline vehicle, or one ipratropium inhaler equivalent to 58km, you can imagine the impact of one year’s worth of prescribing can be in IH. The preliminary data is certainly eye-opening. We are nearly ready to present the data, and when that is available, we will share it here. 

Until then, there is more positive action happening at VJH we will share with you in upcoming publications. Stay tuned!

For any questions you might have, or how to get involved, please reach out to our members:

Hannah Rempel, (hannah.rempel@interiorhealth.ca)

Sustainability Champion Lead & Clinical Operations Manager

Kristen Megyesi, (kristen.megyesi@interiorhealth.ca)

Sustainability Champion Co-Lead & Clinical Operations Manager

Ozora Amin, (ozra.amin@interiorhealth.ca)

Interior Health Environmental Sustainability Coordinator

Sustainability Advocates:

Erica Burk, PPL Physiotherapy

Dionne Martyn, Pharmacist

Yuri Yoneda, RN, 2EW

Misty Flemming, Manager, Support Services

Taryn Murray, Respiratory Therapist

Dr. Alan Martyn, Internal Medicine Physician

DID YOU KNOW....

That you can visit vernonphysiciansociety.ca to find upcoming events, resources and easy to use forms to submit a funding application for an FE project.

Working on a funding application? Your preparation time is billable under the FE activity Physician Engagement Application Support (PEAS). If this activity is not on your personal drop down menu, contact Taylor at support@vernonphysiciansociety.ca and she will add it to your profile.

UPCOMING COURSES & WEBINARS

Webinar recordings:

Child and Youth Mental Health and Substance Use webinars available via UBC CPD.

Conflict resolution foundations:

• Managing workplace conflict series Part 1: Conflict resolution foundations – Recorded webinar(link is external)
• Managing workplace conflict series Part 1: Conflict resolution foundations – Slide deck

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