The following are highlights of the June meeting of Council.
Council at a Glance infographic transcript
College to Regulate Physician Assistants (PAs)
- Under this legislation, PAs will become a class of members under CPSO’s regulatory authority.
- No controlled acts; the legislation will maintain current framework of delegation.
- It will provide title protection for “physician assistant” in the Medicine Act.
- It restricts PAs from physician powers/title use and will also see the development of new professional misconduct grounds.
Modernizing Assessment of Facilities
CPSO to modernize assessment of facilities. This will impact both the Out of Hospital Premises program and the Independent Health Facilities program. The objective is to incorporate principles of right-touch regulation in the assessment of quality of services provided. The result will be to enhance patient safety and improve timelines.
Compliment a Physician
We received 357 compliments via our “Compliment a Physician” webpage since its launch in May 2019.
Help in 240 Different Languages
Our Patient Help Centre is now able to listen to concerns in more than 240 different languages through the use of interpretation services, improving accessibility to the diverse populations of Ontario.
Complaints
We continue to shorten the timeline for complaint completion. In January 2018, it took 344 days to complete a complaint file. In December 2020, it took 157 days. Our goal is to complete complaints within 150 days.
As the time to contact a complainant has decreased, the percentage of opened cases ending in early resolution increased. In 2020, we contacted complainants within two days. In January 2018, 16 percent of cases ended in early resolution; and in January 2021, 35 percent of cases ended in early resolution.
Decisions
Policies that received final approval:
- Third Party Medical Reports
- Professional Responsibilities in Medical Education
- Academic Registration
Our draft Social Media policy is now open for consultation.
We also redesigned four registration policies:
- Acceptable Qualifying Examinations;
- Recognition of Certification without Examination Issued by CFPC;
- Alternative to the MCCQE 2 Examination; and
- Restricted Exam Eligible.
The following statements were approved:
The approval of the statement denouncing Female Genital Cutting/Mutilation makes our policy on the same topic redundant and it was, therefore, rescinded.
Governance Modernization
Council provided the College with a clear agenda for change after government indicated it will initiate a comprehensive consultation on governance modernization.
