Council Meeting Highlights - January 15, 2010
Council members Brent Stewart, Derek Dagenais, Jon Antal, Karen Wallace, Karen Todd and Jamie Struthers met on January 15, 2010 to consider reports from the college committees. Highlights from the meeting follow.
Call Extended for Nominations for Election of Council Members at Large
A report from the Nominations Committee noted that only two nominations had been received for two and potentially three Council positions needing to be filled. Council extended the deadline for receipt of nominations to February 19, 2010. Anyone interested in serving on Council should immediately submit their nomination to the committee.
Appointment of an Investigations and Research Coordinator
Council approved an arrangement to second Cheryl Solonenko from SIAST to undertake the position of Investigations and Research Coordinator. Cheryl Solonenko, has been instructing in the Emergency Health Care program at SIAST since 1987. Prior to that she worked as an EMT-P in various ambulance services in Saskatchewan (and still does some casual work at Strasbourg EMS). She also worked in the early 1990s as an Ambulance Consultant with the Ministry of Health. During the last five years Cheryl has been active in elected positions within SGEU. She recently completed the Administrative Justice Certificate and, in addition to her Paramedic diploma, has a Bachelors Degree in Vocational Technical Education from the U of R. Cheryl will begin her appointment on February 15th.
Interprovincial Collaboration
Council considered recommendations from the Audit Committee regarding membership in various groups promoting interprovincial or national collaboration.
Council adopted the Charter of the Canadian Organization of Paramedic Regulators (COPR) and decided to join the organization. COPR has evolved to a formal organization from the collaborative efforts of paramedic regulators in every province. The group has worked well together in 2009 to implement full labour mobility. In the coming years COPR will concentrate on clarifying common scopes of practice and developing interprovincial exams for various levels of paramedics. COPR hopes to have confirmed membership of all provincial regulators and established a Council and an Executive Committee by the end of March, 2010. The initial membership fee is $3100.
Council also decided to become a member/sponsor of the Canadian Medical Association’s Accreditation Service. The Accreditation Service is a collaborative of health professionals which evaluates and accredits professional training programs. SIAST has been accredited by the CMA and will be assessed in 2010 for continuation of that accreditation. In order to ensure that SCoP requirements for entry level training of our members are incorporated into the accreditation survey, the College needed to belong to the Accreditation Service. The membership fee is about $1500.
In 2008 at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of SCoP Inc., the organization which preceded the current College, the members decided the college should become a member of the Paramedics Association of Canada. This is an organization of chapters of paramedics across the country which advocates on behalf of paramedics and has, for the past decade been responsible for the National Occupational Competency Profile for Paramedics (NOCPs). In 2009 SCoP paid $12,000 in membership fees to PAC. Council received no communication from PAC for the first six months of the year and was not invited to participate in PAC Board Meetings or the PAC Annual General Meeting. Nor was SCoP consulted by PAC on its major project of revision of the NOCPs. Council wrote to PAC requesting an explanation and received a letter of response which apologized for the oversight. The letter also indicated that SCoP would be consulted along with all other regulators on the revision of the NOCPs, and so had not lost that opportunity by not being involved in the PAC Board meetings. President Stewart was invited to the October meeting of the PAC Board of Directors.
At its meeting on January 15th, Council members questioned the value SCoP was receiving from PAC for its $12,000 membership fee, and wondered about the appropriateness of a regulator belonging to an advocacy organization. Council determined to recommend to the membership that SCoP withdraw from PAC. This will be decided at the SCoP AGM on April 16 in Meadow Lake.
Registry System Replacement
Council considered reports from the Registration and Audit Committees. There is an urgent need to replace the registry system. The current “system” of the College is in fact three databases which do not interact: the legacy system from Health which tracks registration and training data, the membership card system which tracks registration and employment data, and the accounting system which tracks registration fees. Neither the Health system nor the membership card system allow for data to be stored. When revisions are entered, the old data is replaced and cannot be recovered. This means the only historical information on members is their paper files. The problem with all of this is that it makes the registration renewal process very inefficient and cumbersome. Data must be re-entered in three different systems, applications must be handled repeatedly. This is costly, it causes long delays in processing applications and the potential for error is significant. Council approved the contracting of a consultant to assist the College to define requirements for a new registry system and conduct a Request for Proposals process to purchase a new system that better meets our needs. The Registration Committee will oversee this project.
Licensing Fees for 2011 Will Remain at $425
A policy proposed by the Audit Committee was adopted by Council for the determination of licensing fees in future years in compliance with the Administrative Bylaws. The Bylaws provide that:
28.1.2 The fee payable for an annual practising license for 2011 and each subsequent year shall be increased from $425 by the annual rate of inflation rounded up to the nearest $5.
The September Consumer Price Index (CPI) will be used each year to calculate the fee for the year which begins 15 months in the future; i.e. September, 2009 CPI will be used to calculate the 2011 Licensing Fee. A negative CPI will result in no change to the fee from the previous year. The CPI is the most widely used indicator of annual inflation. It is monitored and updated at least quarterly by Statistics Canada and the Bank of Canada which both post the information on their web sites. Using this policy Council determined that there would be no increase in fees for 2011. (The CPI for September, 2009, was -0.9%). The 2012 licensing fee will be determined when the September, 2010 CPI is available.
Entry to Practice Licensing Exams
Council received a report from the Registration Committee on pilot tests of the PCP licensing exam. Council confirmed the Registration Committee as the appropriate committee to oversee refinement and administration of the entry to practice licensing exams, including any participation in the development of interprovincial exams. Resources will be made available to the committee to contract expertise to assist with these tasks. Council also decided to contract with the SIAST Test Center to administer SCoP’s written exams every two months. A schedule will be posted on the college web site. The SIAST Test Center offers a secure and confidential service which includes invigilating, electronically scoring the exam and providing a question by question analysis on the exam. This analysis can then be used by the Registration Committee to continually improve the exam. The Dental Therapists and SRNA both use the SIAST Test Centers for their national exams.
Changes to the Regulatory Bylaws to be Submitted to the Minister of Health for Approval
The Legislation and Bylaws Committee reported on the consultation which was undertaken respecting proposed changes to the Regulatory Bylaws which had been approved at the 2009 AGM. There was a good response to our request for feedback from other health profession regulators, SEMSA, Medical Advisors, and the Saskatchewan Association of Fire Chiefs. The low rate of response from EMS Directors and EMS Facilitators was assumed to mean that these members had had their input at the Annual General Meeting and did not feel the need to comment further. As the result of the consultation feedback, Council determined to undertake further work in two areas: initial registration and renewal requirements relating to criminal and disciplinary records, and composition of the statutory committees. All other proposed changes will now be recommended to the Minister of Health for his approval. Once he receives the College recommendations, the Minister has 90 days to respond. If he fails to respond, the amendments are not approved.
SCoP Member and Stakeholder Engagement Strategy
Council reviewed the work to date on a new website for the College and received a report on the development of a Newsletter for members and stakeholders. The college hopes to have the new website up and running by the end of January.
The Executive Committee also reported on a recent meeting with officials from the Ministry of Health. These meetings are slowly building a shared understanding of the need for adjustment to the current process of development and approval of scopes of practice, and the path forward toward eventual transfer of the responsibility for scope of practice to the college. Another meeting is scheduled for March.
A suggestion from the Nominations Committee to use Telehealth Services for involving members in the AGM and other meetings was considered by the Council. Given the propensity for technical difficulties, the Council opted to try out the services for less crucial events first to ensure our ability to manage the process.
SCoP Policy Document
Council revised several policies on the advice of various committees, approved new policies on disciplinary processes, and approved the full Policy Manual for posting on the new web site. This document will be a “living document” in that policies will be reviewed regularly and changes made by Council will be incorporated as they are made.
2010 Budget and other Financial Matters
Council reviewed a financial year end projection based on November 31, 2009, financial report from the Office Manager, and a proposed budget for 2010. Consistent with the financial policies of the college, Council established a legal fund to support future discipline hearings or to defend the college in any future litigation. The idea is to build up a reserve which can be drawn on for these kinds of expensive, but infrequent, events. When this reserve is included, the 2009 deficit on a cash flow basis is expected to be about $65,000. The budgeted deficit for 2010 was approved at $85,000 dropping over the next two years to a balanced budget in 2013. A major factor in these deficits is the anticipation of the purchase of a new registry system. The audited financial statements for 2009 and a three year budget projection will be provided to the AGM.
Registration 2010 and Ensuring the Accuracy of Member’s Training Information on File
Council discussed a report from the Executive Director on member registration for 2010. As of January 8, 2010, 1776 members had renewed their registration with the College including 1725 practicing licences and 51 non-practicing registrations. The membership profile has remained much the same as 2009 with 17% EMRs, 60% EMTs, 12% EMT-As and 11% EMT-Ps. For the first time the College has information on the number of members who report having been trained at the PCP, ICP or ACP level. This information will now be compared to member files. Where the file does not contain the certificate or diploma, members will be asked to confirm their training level by providing a transcript or certificate/diploma. If the College decides to change the first two digits of the registry numbers to reflect competence as indicated by training level, then it will be very important to have the correct training information on the members’ files.
The College also attempted to collect information this renewal season on training in new protocols. Members will be asked in the coming months to confirm their training in all the optional protocols, not just the most recently approved changes to protocols. This is necessary because there is not a reliable historical record of member training in areas that affect individual scope of practice. The Ministry of Health did not collect this information and neither has the college for the past year. Council determined that members would be asked to self-report on training they had completed in the last five years.
Questions or concerns should be directed to Lily Stonehouse, Executive Director.