News Release
Joint Executive Committee endorses Action Plan
- Date of Issue: Thursday, November 7, 2002
- Français
St. Catharines , ON - Joint Executive Committee (JEC) members of Hotel Dieu Health Sciences Hospital, Niagara and the Niagara Health System (NHS) have endorsed an action plan to develop, by January 31, 2003, a common approach for both organizations to handle:
- physician credentials and privileges;
- physician planning and recruitment; and,
- service delivery and scheduling.
Three Working Groups will be established to do this. The Workings Groups will report to and work with a JEC Sub-Committee comprised of both hospitals’ Medical Staff Association Presidents, Chiefs of Staffs, and Chief Executive Officers.
The Medical Advisory Committees of the NHS and Hotel Dieu will appoint physician members to the Working Groups. The Working Groups are slated to present draft reports to the JEC in January.
The Credentialling and Privileges Working Group will develop common criteria, such as qualifications, standards and procedures for credentialling and a joint application process for physician privileges. The result will be common eligibility and common standards of practice at both Hotel Dieu and the NHS.
Under Physician Planning and Recruitment the team will identify population needs and the most effective way of distributing physicians throughout Niagara’s hospitals. As well they will examine the feasibility of joint Chiefs of Departments and Services. The group will also take to the JEC a plan for one physician recruitment process as well as a model for a common medical staff to serve between the NHS and the Dieu.
The Service Delivery and Scheduling Working Group has been tasked to build on the preliminary work already started by the JEC and to further refine the distribution of services as laid out by the HSRC directions, taking into account the pending report from Mr. Dennis Timbrell to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.
“We’re taking an inclusive and aggressive approach to working through the organizational barriers faced by our doctors,” said Paul Leon, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Niagara Health System. “An example of this is consideration of shared information technology between Hotel Dieu and the NHS. This will allow doctors to access comprehensive patient records that include the full details of a patient’s tests and procedures, regardless of which hospital treats them,” said Mr. Leon.
“Our goal is to improve the quality of care our patients receive. An integral part of this is determining the most appropriate means of enabling doctors to work with both the NHS and the Dieu. This means providing them with tools and services they need to better care for their patients,” said Sean Jackson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Hotel Dieu.