Balance

Detailed information will follow.  Please mark January 15, 2017 on your calendar.

Continuing Education credits will be given for both, the Annual General Meeting and the Scientific/Education Seminar.

The HPRB agreed with the decision of the Education and Examination Committee in this case. Examination applicants must meet the examination requirements set out under s. 55.1 of the College bylaws. The relevant section of the bylaws is cited as follows for reference:

“successful completion of not less than two (2) years of liberal arts or sciences study (comprised of at least 60 credits) in an accredited college or chartered/approved university acceptable to the registration committee”.

The HPRB held that the College exercised its mandate without unfairness, bad faith, improper purpose or taking into account entirely or predominantly irrelevant factors. The HPRB observed that the College’s statutory duty is to establish appropriate academic requirements for registration as a member of the College and that the College’s Education and Examination Committee and Registration Committee perform a gate keeper function in this regard.

This decision demonstrates the College’s ongoing commitment to the regulation of the profession in the public interest. Ensuring only qualified applicants are registered with the College is an important component of the College’s public safety mandate.

A copy of the decision can be accessed here.

Please submit your feedback by clicking the link below. It should take no longer than 2-minutes to complete.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6X52JDZ

Registrants may log in to the Member Portal to update contact information and manage their profile including viewing examination applications and results. To access the Member Portal, please use the link https://portal.ctcma.bc.ca.

Important Dates:

14 October 2016 – Nominations Due

13 December 2016 – Ballots due; Election results posted

Are you interested in making a valuable contribution to your profession ?

Do you want to gain experience and insight into professional health regulation issues, including registration,  inquiry, discipline, quality assurance, patient relations, legislation and finance ?

Are you interested in learning more about the Health Professions Act and the College bylaws and in gaining some insight into the legal process ? 

If so, now is the time to consider serving on the College Board.

Registrants are encouraged to accept nominations for the three vacancies on the 2016 Board. The terms of office are three years for three positions.

Board members are leaders and decision makers. Clarity of purpose, goals, roles and expectations, as well as trust, mutual respect, honest communications and collaborative relationships are essential to effective board and organizational performance. The following leadership responsibilities have been adopted by the Board for your reference as you consider nominating or being nominated.

Strategic Intent –Sets and drives the strategic direction for the College

1. Actively communicates the College vision to registrants.
2. Engages external stakeholders to support the College’s strategic direction.
3. Actively contributes personal perspective to important issues.
4. Focuses on governance of the College, not on management of operations.
5. Takes abroad perspective towards emerging opportunities and challenges.
6. Encourages the use of performance measurement to drive improvement.

Personal Effectiveness – Works to improve personal effectiveness and performance

1. Clearly demonstrates the CTCMA values (i.e. Honesty and Integrity, Fairness, Transparency, Quality, Confidentiality, Privacy, Accountability, Responsibility, Approachability, Openness, Effective Communication, Engages external stakeholders to support the College’s strategic direction.)
2. Uses awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses to improve contribution to the College.
3. Delivers on commitments.
4. Makes principled and ethical decisions, even if they are sensitive or controversial.
5. Solicits feedback regarding personal performance.
6. Maintains confidentiality.
7. Demonstrates a sense of humour.

Engaging Others – Builds and maintains rapport with others to enhance working relations and to improve overall organizational effectiveness

1. Creates an environment of trust where people feel encouraged to actively communicate and contribute.
2. Welcomes differing perspectives and opinions.
3. Actively seeks input from others.
4. Adapts personal style to match differing needs of registrants.
5. Willingly collaborates with others to achieve desired results.

Communication – Effectively communicates with a broad range of stakeholders

1. Actively listens to others’ opinions and ideas before providing own advice and counsel.
2. Shares knowledge and expertise to strengthen Board performance.
3. Openly communicates thoughts, wants and feelings.
4. Communicates key issues and concerns in a timely fashion.
5. Uses a communication style and method that is most effective for the situation.
6. Presents information in a coherent, clear and timely manner.

Decision Making – Uses a systematic approach to problem solving and decision making.  Bases decisions on best available information.

1. Assesses problems based on short and long-term impacts on the College.
2. Evaluates the results of past decisions to guide future decision making.
3. Explores the root causes of the issue or challenge, not just the symptoms.
4. Uses the College’s established strategic direction as a framework for decisions.
5. Makes decisions in the best interest of the College.
6. Stands behind Board decisions even if they are not his/her primary choice.

Public Focus – Demonstrates a commitment to serving the public interest.

1. Works to understand the needs and requirements of the public in relation to the College.
2. Demonstrates dedication to meeting expectations of the public.
3. Acts with the best interest of the public in mind.
4. Navigates effectively through challenging situations that involve College registrants and the public.
5. Works diligently to gain the trust and support of the public.

The Financial Statement may be downloaded from the Financial Statements page.

Answer: Sharing personal information about yourself is crossing a professional boundary. When a practitioner shares personal details about his or her private life, it can confuse patients suggesting that the practitioner may want to have more than a professional relationship. It is equally inappropriate to ask your patient personal information unrelated to the professional services that you are offering.

It is up to the health professional at all times to establish and maintain the practitioner/patient boundaries.  You have a duty to ensure the patient understands the boundaries required of a health professional and to ensure that a personal friendship or other type of relationship does not develop. It is important that your communication skills are professional, ethical and tactful.  If a patient engages in inappropriate behaviour with you, you should terminate the patient/practitioner relationship. In doing so, you must provide the patient with adequate time to find another practitioner and assist the patient in finding another practitioner if possible.  It is also important that you accurately document the reason for terminating the relationship in the patient’s record.

For additional, helpful information, please refer to publication, ‘Where’s The Line’ which is available on the Quality Practice page on the College’s website.

This is a very important process and you are encouraged not to delay in getting it done.  If you fail to renew your insurance you will create a lapse in coverage, not just for claims that arise right now, but also for any claims that might occur in which you have treated a patient in previous months or years past.

The Professional Malpractice Liability insurance is written on a Claims Made policy which means that:

1. The insurance must be in place at the time the claim is made; and
2. The insurance must be continuous from the time you start practicing.

When you lapse your insurance, or forget to renew your insurance, you reset the Retroactive Date of your policy.  The Retroactive Date sets the clock on how far back the insurance company will provide coverage.  For example you start your practice in December 2008, this will become your Retroactive Date, and you continue to purchase insurance coverage until August 2017.  In October 2016 you realize you didn’t renew the insurance and you purchase coverage starting now.  A very critical change occurs in your insurance coverage:

• You have re-set your Retroactive Date to October 2016 and any claim that arises from that date or in the future from treatments or services you provided prior to October 2016 will not be covered by your current insurance policy. AND the insurance coverage you had in the past will not respond because that policy has been lapsed and it is not required to respond as it was not in force at the time the claim was made.

Maintaining continuous insurance coverage is key to ensuring you are protected.  The renewal process is a very important time and we would encourage you to avoid the rush, process your renewal as soon as you receive your reminder.  And if you haven’t received the renewal notice from your Broker by August 15^th, 2016 that you contact them directly to ensure coverage does not lapse.

** This article is provided as information only.  Please ensure you contact your Insurance Broker to receive their advice on how your renewal should be processed. **

Karen McGee

Program & Underwriting Manager

Plus Underwriting Managers Ltd.