Submission to the BCMA Annual Report

President: Dr. John Ridley, Past President: Dr. Rod Tukker, President Elect: Dr. David Harris, Secretary: Dr Iqbal Siddiqui, Treasurer: Dr. Todd Arnold, Members at Large: Dr. Aliff Jamal, Dr. Rashad Dindo   The BCMA Section of Hospital Medicine has been actively representing Hospitalists in BC for nearly 10 years. We represent close to 200 physicians whose focus of practice is medical care within the hospital setting. We firmly believe that with ever-improving relationships with all of our healthcare partners in BC, we will be able to fulfil our promise of raising the standards of general medical care delivery in hospitals throughout the province. While we have come a long way along this path over recent years, there is much work yet to be done. This continues to make our practice both exciting and challenging. The evolution of Hospital Medicine in British Columbia and throughout Canada has occurred in an organic fashion over the past 15 years. The specialization has grown rapidly for the right reasons, underpinned by the imperative to provide the safest, highest quality, most efficient care to hospitalized medical patients. In British Columbia, Hospitalist services are provided largely by CCFP qualified Family Physicians with expanded expertise in Hospital Medicine. Expertise has usually been acquired through years of work experience in Emergency Medicine, rural medicine with full-scope practice, or work in critical care areas. Many Hospitalists have had formal training and recognition as CCFP-EM specialty Emergency Physicians, FRCPC Internists, and a few are anaesthesiologists. Training in these areas provides the requisite medical background and familiarity with the hospital as a system of care delivery. All successful Hospitalists have an affinity for working to provide optimal hospital-based care marked by ever-improving quality of care, patient safety and efficient use of scarce hospital resources. Recently, many BC Hospitalists have qualified and obtained certification through the American Board of Hospital Medicine, a member of the American Board of Physician Specialties. Others have received formal recognition of achievement as Fellows in Hospital Medicine, conferred by the Society of Hospital Medicine (USA) for exceptional physicians dedicated to excellence in Hospital Medicine. Over the past 3 years, a working group of the Canadian Society of Hospital Medicine (CSHM) has been working with the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) to establish a formal training and recognition process to help adequately prepare and standardize the quality of future Hospitalists. A joint proposal is currently in the final phase of approval. This year has seen the formation of a province-wide hospitalist Venous Thromboembolism Collaborative with participation from all hospitalist programs. Evidence-based guidelines on DVT prophylaxis are being standardized and implemented at all sites. Research on the impact of the collaborative is ongoing, and we hope to see the benefits of such coordinated efforts.   This Quality Improvement initiative represents the first of many initiatives planned for implementation by Hospitalists to raise the level of inpatient care quality and safety in British Columbia. On behalf of the Hospitalists of British Columbia,   John Ridley, MD President, BCMA Section of Hospital Medicine