Please use the pull down menu for more resources.
Hover and click bold text to access, or click on the Download button if there is one.
Out-of-Pocket Costs for Rural Residents When Traveling for Health Care – Survey Results
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WHAT IS DRUGSEARCH?
A search engine to help you find the most affordable drug, along with coverage and special authority resource.
Drugsearch.ca regularly updates the information presented to you.
Drugsearch.ca is built by a pharmacist and a software engineer based in B.C. Contact us at info@drugsearch.ca
Read our story
Welcome! Drugsearch.ca is a free web tool created by Vancouver software engineer and pharmacist (myself) to show physicians, pharmacists and patients drug prices and if the drug is covered by the provincial government.
The idea was borne after I encountered a child with severe asthma who had only been taking Ventolin because his parents could not afford to pay $100 for an inhaled steroid. Had the physician known that Flovent was fully covered by Pharmacare, the parents would have been able to obtain the steroid for free and thus bring the child’s asthma under control.
I also see Low Income (Plan C) or Psychiatric (Plan G) patients prescribed drugs that were not covered, necessitating pharmacists to look up covered alternative drugs, fax the Dr’s office for the OK, and then wait for the clinic MOA’s to fax us back before obtaining and dispensing a covered drug. This process causes unnecessary waits of a day or more, and also represents more work for the Dr and their staff and massive fax paper wastage.
We hope this tool will help alleviate everyone’s workload — please do not hesitate to contact us for any input at info@drugsearch.ca
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MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER
As British Columbia’s first Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, I am honoured and excited to present A Pathway to Hope: A roadmap for making mental health and addictions care better for people in British Columbia.
Judy Darcy, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions
At the heart of A Pathway to Hope is a powerful determination to make positive, lasting changes, so that B.C.’s system of mental health and addictions care works for everyone—no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make. Our vision is one where every one of us can live in a state of physical, spiritual, mental and emotional well-being.
B.C. has taken an important first step toward that vision with the creation of this ministry, the only one of its kind in Canada. With this roadmap, we are taking the next one. Our major focus is child and youth mental health — the cornerstone of A Pathway to Hope. When we improve their mental wellness and address small problems before they become bigger, we are making lasting investments in making B.C. better for everyone.
At the same time, we are strengthening our resolve to turn the corner on the overdose crisis. The worst public health emergency in a generation has revealed enormous gaps in addictions care. I am deeply grateful to all of the front-line workers, peers, rst responders, friends and families for doing everything they can to save lives and connect more people to treatment and recovery. It truly takes a province to make a difference, and we are continuing to escalate our response together. And we have begun to reshape and integrate the fragmented system of mental health and addictions care so that it leads to better services that are informed with cultural humility, dignity and respect.
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VIRTUAL CARE Guide for Patients
In collaboration with patients and their families, the Canadian Medical Association, the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada have created this guide to help patients prepare for “virtual visits” with their doctor. It focuses on video visits, although it is also possible to receive virtual care through phone calls, text messaging and email. We recommend that you read the entire guide to gain the best possible results.
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https://www.deprescribingnetwork.ca/blog/prescribing-cascade
By Camille Gagnon, Janet Currie and Johanna Trimble
Click here to download a printable version of this article
[Excerpts] A prescribing cascade can happen when you and/or your health providers do not realize new symptoms are actually the side effects of one of your medications. When this happens, you may be diagnosed with a new medical condition. As a result, often your health provider will prescribe a new medication to treat the side effects of the first medication.
Your new medication may also have side effects. When you and/or your health provider interpret these side effects as yet another new health condition, this can lead to more prescriptions. What happens next? Too often, you can end up taking a cascade of new medications which are not needed and which can cause harm.
Whenever you take a medication, there is a risk you will experience a side effect. The more medications you take, the greater your risk of side effects. Whenever you experience new symptoms, you and your health providers should always first consider whether they could be caused by medications you are currently taking. This will help avoid a common preventable problem called a “prescribing cascade”.
At 75, Mrs. Reynolds started having trouble falling asleep. She felt like she was spending hours tossing and turning. Her daily routine hadn’t changed: she visited with friends, went for her daily walk, and made sure to keep her coffee consumption low. Her medications hadn’t changed either. She’d been taking medications regularly for depression, high cholesterol and high blood pressure for years.
Hoping it would help her get a good night’s sleep, Mrs. Reynolds bought a box of sleeping pills (Sleep-Eze®) at the pharmacy and took one that evening. Although it didn’t help, she thought it would be worth trying them a little longer. But over the next few days, Mrs. Reynolds noticed her mouth started feeling dry, which forced her to keep a glass of water on her bedside table. In the mornings, she woke up feeling groggy and constipated. Meanwhile, her sleep hadn’t improved. Feeling frustrated, she decided to go see her pharmacist Nadia about these new symptoms as well as about her sleep problem.
Nadia listened carefully to Mrs. Reynolds’ story. Then, she explained that the most likely cause of her dry mouth, constipation and daytime grogginess was the sleeping pill she’d been taking. Nadia then took a close look at Mrs. Reynolds’ file. She told Mrs. Reynolds her antidepressant (bupropion) could be causing her insomnia in the first place.
“Your sleep problem is likely a side effect of the antidepressant medication you are taking. When you took another medication for your sleep problem, this created what we call a prescribing cascade.” Mrs. Reynolds was puzzled. She had been taking bupropion for over two years. Was it possible new side effects could appear after so much time had passed? The pharmacist’s response was clear: “Yes. You can get a new side effect at any time.”
A few other examples of common prescribing cascades:
To access the full article, click on: Click here to download a printable version of this article
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COVID-19
Where we are.
Considerations for next steps.
Prepared for BC Ministry of Health
April 17, 2020
(Click on the bold text for the latest updates)
- To update on the current epidemiology of COVID-19 in BC
- To compare our current state in BC to previous projections with respect to cases and ICU status
- To provide an update on our health system level of preparedness forthose critically ill with COVID-19
- To highlight the effect of our public health measures and societalaction
- To identify considerations for next steps
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https://www.unbc.ca/health-research-institute
The UNBC Health Research Institute (HRI) is designed to enable UNBC’s health researchers to join together for the purpose of furthering health research and innovation.
The Institute provides a venue for collaboration among this diverse of group of researchers from many disciplines, who undertake various forms of health research, including research on the determinants of health.
The Institute encompasses researchers working in the areas identified in the UNBC Strategic Research Plan (Determinants of Health, Health Services and Policy, Population and Public Health, Indigenous Health, Health and Environment), as well as others who engage in health research at UNBC.
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Free online presentation on medication safety for older adults and their caregivers
Do you work or volunteer with an organization that represents, serves, or advocates for older adults?
Are you planning next year’s programming?
While we still don’t know when we’ll be able to hold in-person events again, consider an online presentation on medication safety as part of your offerings for 2020-2021!
More than ever, medication safety is a priority. Unfortunately, harmful medication side effects such as falls, fractures and hospitalizations do not stop happening during pandemics. Nor does the need to educate the public about this issue.
Website | Site web: deprescribingnetwork.ca | reseaudeprescription.ca
Email: info@deprescribingnetwork.ca
Facebook: @deprescribingnetwork
Twitter: @DeprescribeNet
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HEALTHY AGING CORE
Collaborative Online Resources and Education
There is a wide variety of useful and relevant resources available to individuals and organizations focused on healthy aging. These include checklists, toolkits, reports, studies, videos, and other materials on the seven core program areas, as well as resources on topics such as ageism, caregiving, research, organizational and sector development, and many other subjects. The resources included on CORE have been vetted to ensure they are relevant, current, and reflective of best practice.
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A BILLION REASONS TO CARE
A Billion Reasons to Care is the first provincial review of the $1.4 billion-dollar contracted long-term care sector in British Columbia. The review examined industry contracts, annual audited financial statements and detailed reporting on revenue and expenditures for the years 2016/17 and 2017/18.
Report Highlights
– financial reporting systems were inconsistent between health authorities and they lacked openness and transparency
– there was insufficient detail for significant expenditures related to management fees, head office allocation and some administrative costs
– the method to report direct care hours was based on self-reported unaudited expense reports prepared by the care home operators with no ability to verify the reported worked hours
– less than half of care home operators are required to make their audited financial statements available to the public and no care homes publicly report their expense statements
The report found that while receiving, on average, the same level of public funding:
– not-for-profit care homes spend $10,000 or 24% more per year on care for each resident
– for-profit care homes failed to deliver 207,000 funded direct care hours
– not-for-profit care homes exceeded direct care hour targets by delivering an additional 80,000 hours of direct care beyond what they were publicly funded to deliver
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The importance of community health centres in BC’s primary care reforms: What the research tells us
Mar 1, 2019
By Andrew Longhurst and Marcy Cohen
Community health centres (CHCs) have been an effective but under-valued model for delivering primary health care1 for decades in Canada and the US. One of the unique features of the model is its strong focus on the social determinants of health and preventing acute illness among groups who are more likely to experience poor health and suffer from chronic conditions, including low-income people, ethno-cultural communities, Indigenous peoples, and frail seniors.
So what are community health centres? CHCs are non-profit primary care organizations that provide integrated health care and social services, with a focus on addressing the social determinants of health.
Click on the title to read the full report.
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Nav-CARE
Nav-CARE (Navigation – Connecting, Accessing, Resourcing, Engaging)
Navigating life and aging with chronic illness
The overall goal of the Nav-CARE program is to improve the quality of life of adults living at home with serious illness. Community organizations across Canada are project partners. View the Nav-CARE brochure.
This project builds upon five years of collaborative work with knowledge partners in which we developed the conceptual and theoretical foundations; created, tested, and refined curriculum for volunteer navigators; and conducted three incremental pilots to determine the feasibility and acceptability of the Nav-CARE model.
Read our most recent document: Findings From a Knowledge Translation Study
Why is Nav-CARE important?
Adults living at home with serious illness, particularly those who do not yet qualify for home-based nursing care, often live with unmet needs and heavy symptom burden resulting in poor quality of life. Many do not know the services that are available to assist them. Our previous research (see below) has demonstrated the value of using trained navigators to visit in the home to provide psychosocial support, education, guidance on advance care planning and connection to community and health resources. These navigators engage older adults to identify the services and resources available and to connect them to those resources using a best-fit, client-centred approach.
To read more, click on: https://pesut-lab.sites.olt.ubc.ca/projects-2/ncare/
Interested in how your community organization can get involved? Contact us for more information!
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS
Barb Pesut, PhD, RN
Canada Research Chair, Health, Ethics and Diversity
Associate Professor,
School of Nursing
University of British Columbia
Ph. 250-807-9955
barb.pesut@ubc.ca
Wendy Duggleby, PhD, RN, AOCN
Professor and Nursing Research Chair in Aging and Quality of Life University of Alberta, Faculty of Nursing
Ph. 1-877-692-5909
livingwithhope@nurs.ualberta.ca
Wendy Duggleby (right)
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How to Establish Intergenerational Groups in Your Community
GROWING TOGETHER: RISING STRONG
Lee Reid, Member of Community First Health Co-Op.
February 4, 2020
In intergenerational groups, both seniors and youth tend to unite around pressing global issues, such as abuse of women and abuse of racial or gender minorities. They feel deeply troubled about climate-related disasters, or mass shootings that target schoolchildren and civilians.
“How can we work together on climate action? How can we help each other in a world where the future seems scary and uncertain?”
They ask how to stay present with despair when they see overwhelming suffering in our world. They ask about leadership and compassion when violence and bullying seem the norm.
What, Why and How to Shape Intergenerational Groups in your Community
1) You will need funding.
2) Invite partnerships with school administration, school counseling team, school district, community youth services and networks, and seniors service societies or health and recreation centres for seniors.
3) Hire a coordinator to do the community engagement.
4) Contract and fund a groups facilitator with skills (including counseling expertise) to engage both seniors and youth.
5) Create short, seniors-only sessions that meet right after each group and within the school setting.
6) Invite a sponsor teacher to schedule the groups into double blocks of her/his class time.
To access the entire article, click on:
Forming Intergenerational Groups In Your Community Download
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Rural Site Visit Project
The Rural Site Visits Project engages health partners (health professionals, health administration, policy makers, community, and academic institutions) within each community visited. From these meetings, information is collected, anonymized and analyzed into themes to identify the major themes affecting health care delivery in BC rural communities.
As a commitment to the communities, RCCbc is providing bi-annual Community Feedback Reports to provide updates on project progress and share learnings from innovative solutions found throughout the visits. Please note that each report encompasses feedback from all rural communities engaged since the beginning of the Project.
Dr. Stuart Johnston
Director, Rural Site Visits Project
Krystal Wong
Program Coordinator, Rural Site Visits Project
Community Feedback Reports
To download the first report, click on: June 2017 – December 2018
To download the second report, click on: June 2017 – June 2019
To download the third report, click on: June 2017 – December 2019
To download the fourth report, click on: June 2017 – May 2020
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Come see our new Rural Site Visits and Innovations web site
Below is a small sample of the innovations you can find on the website:
– subsidized bus service
– team based care using technology to increase patient access
– single referral Electronic Medical Records for community services
– Indigenous care aides take on role in community
– Travel Assistance Program (TAP) funds locals with Out-Of-
Community Appointments.
If you have questions or want to have a deeper discussion about your innovation, please reach out to our Innovations Concierge, Tracey DeLeeuw at tdeleeuw@rccbc.ca.”
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What do people mean when they talk about the Patient’s Medical Home (PMH)?
The PMH is a family practice defined by its patients as the place they feel most comfortable presenting and discussing their personal and family health and medical concerns. The PMH can be broken down into three themes: Foundations, Functions, and Ongoing Development
What are the 10 pillars of a Patient’s Medical Home?
Find out more: Patient’s Medical Home (PMH)
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BC Healthy Communities Society (BCHC) is a province-wide not-for-profit that facilitates the ongoing development of healthy, thriving and resilient communities. We provide a range of resources, programs and fee-for-service offerings that support multi-sectoral groups to collaborate around a shared vision for a common purpose. We work closely with, and have strong partnerships with local governments and health authorities across the province.
We have adopted and adapted the Healthy Communities Approach in our work to support local governments as they create equitable policies that address community health and well-being. The Healthy Communities movement recognizes that 60% of what makes us healthy is determined by our built, social, environmental and economic environments, and helps local governments design these various environments to support maximum health and well-being.
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Citizen-Patient-Community Participation in Health Care Planning: Decision-Making and Delivery through Rural Health Councils.
Jude Kornelsen (Principal Investigator) Christine Carthew (Lead Reviewer) & Zeena Yusufu, MPH (Reviewer)
The Rural Evidence Review (RER) project is a joint collaboration between the Centre for Rural Health Research (Department of Family Practice, University of BC) and the Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia (RRC_bc).
The RER is funded under Canada’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research – SPOR and Canadian Institutes of Health Research – CIHR. The goal of the project is to work with rural citizens-patients-communities to provide high quality and useful evidence for rural health services planning in British Columbia.
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To download the summary, click on: Summary
To watch Recordings and Presentations from this Conference, click on:
Academic Health Science Network Conference
The event program was co-developed by the Rural Coordination Centre of BC, the Canadian Frailty Network and the BC Academic Health Science Network and was planned to achieve scientific integrity, objectivity and balance.
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The Rural Health Services Research Network of BC (RHSRNbc) was established in May 2010, as part of an overall strategy to improve and expand health services research within British Columbia.
The RHSRNbc is built upon the BC Rural and Remote Network (BCRRHRN), which was supported by the Michael Smith Foundation from 2005 to 2010. When a new funder was secured in 2010, the network was re-established under the direction of Dr. Stefan Grzybowski, which became the RHSRNbc.
The RHSRNbc is now supported by the Rural Coordination Centre of BC (RCCbc), through the Joint Standing Committee (JSC), which is funded through B.C.’s Ministry of Health and Doctors of BC.
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BC Academic Health Science Network – Strategic Plan – Looking Forward
BC has major strengths in health care, health research and health education. The role of BC AHSN is to assist in better employing these strengths to reinforce the Province’s leadership in health care innovation and improvement. In alignment with this role, and in keeping with BC AHSN’s mandate to “foster collaboration and the diffusion of excellence in care,” this Strategic Plan represents a commitment by the Board, Management, staff and associates of our organization to work diligently with others to improve health and health care in BC. Trusted partnerships and collaborations with other entities also charged with health research and innovation are key to how BC AHSN intends to fulfill its role. It is one of our guiding principles to foster the relationships necessary to achieve system‐level change of significant impact and value.
To read the full strategic plan, click on AHSN – Strategic Plan https://bcahsn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Looking-Forward.pdf
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The Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) is BC’s health research funding agency. Funded by the province of BC, MSFHR helps develop, retain and recruit the talented people whose research improves the health of British Columbians, addresses health system priorities, creates jobs and adds to the knowledge economy.
Click here to Explore our funding programs
| Vision | A thriving, world-class health research community in British Columbia, working together to improve the health and well-being of our citizens. |
| Mission | Discover solutions to our greatest health challengesConnect knowledge and action on provincial prioritiesEngage partners to improve the research enterprise |
| Values | Leadership We serve to advance shared priorities among BC’s health research stakeholdersIntegrity We act in ways that build trust for working collaboratively with stakeholdersExcellence We strive to exceed our own and others’ expectations of our work |
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Seniors helping seniors is the foundation of Senior Peer Counselling in BC. Peer counselling is based on the principles of self-help and mutual aid.
The purpose of the Society is to address the health of aged persons by providing for senior peer counselling services
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FIRST NATIONS HEALTH AUTHORITY
STATEMENT ON CULTURAL SAFETY AND HUMILITY
FNHA’s Policy Statement on Cultural Safety and Humility
This policy statement provides the FNHA’s view on creating cultural safety and humility for First Nations in the health care system. It builds a common understanding of cultural safety and humility for FNHA, communicates our views with our health partners and provides recommended actions to embed cultural safety into the health system across multiple levels.
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Primary Care Network Indigenous Engagement and Cultural Safety Guidebook
To access, click on the download button.
Indigenous Engagement and Cultural Safety guidebookDownload
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September 2019
South Okanagan Similkameen Primary Care Network Issues Paper
The South Okanagan Similkameen (SOS) Primary Care Network (PCN) encompasses the entire SOS region. It serves approximately 90,000 residents in 8 communities.
The following paper contains an environmental scan of issues that have surfaced in our region. Input was given by physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Interior Health, indigenous partners, local government, and patient voices.
Similar concerns were echoed by other Wave 1 communities.
September 2019
South Okanagan Similkameen Primary Care Network
Vulnerabilities and Solutions
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Aging Out: moving toward queer and trans competent care for seniors.
This discussion paper is a summary of findings and recommendations to provide culturally competent care for LGBTQ seniors in Residential Care and Assisted Living.
This report has been prepared by QMUNITY as part of the Aging Out Project with generous funding from the Vancouver Foundation.
www.qmunity.ca
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Policy Brief
September 2019
To: British Columbia Ministry of Health & Health Authorities Policy Makers
From: Rural Evidence Review Project Centre for rural Health Research, UBC
Citizen-Patient-Community Participation in Health Care Planning, Decision Making and Delivery through Rural Health Councils
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BC PATIENT SAFETY & QUALITY COUNCIL
Our vision is high quality and sustainable health care for all.
We provide system-wide leadership through collaboration with patients, caregivers, the public and those working within the health care system in a relentless pursuit of quality.
The Council provides system-wide leadership to efforts designed to improve the quality of health care in British Columbia. Through collaborative partnerships with health authorities, patients, and those working within the health care system, we promote and inform a provincially-coordinated, patient-centred approach to quality.
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BC Association of Community Health Centres
Our mission is to support and increase access to Community Health Centres so that more individuals, families and communities throughout British Columbia have access to the integrated, high-qualityhealth and social services they deserve.
Learn more about where things stand and what still needs to be done
Grow a Local CHC
If your community has or would like to form a local steering group to establish a Community Health Centre, please make sure to let us know! We want to add you to the list of “communities of record” so that we may begin supporting you to advance your local efforts. Please contact us using the form at the bottom of this page.
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What are Community Health Centres?
Community Health Centres (CHCs) have been an effective but under-valued model for delivering primary health care for decades in Canada and the US. One of the unique features of the model is its strong focus on the social determinants of health and preventing acute illness . among groups who are more likely to experience poor health and suffer from chronic conditions, including low-income people, ethno-cultural communities, Indigenous peoples, and frail seniors. Find out more by clicking on the bold text:The importance of community health centres in BC’s primary care reforms: What the research tells us. Marcy Cohen/Andrew Longhurst March 1, 2019
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BC Health Coalition
The BCHC is a network of individuals and organizations with a shared passion for public health care. Our coalition community is comprised of over 800,000 people in B.C. – and growing.We are young people, seniors, health care workers, faith communities, health policy experts, and people with disabilities.The BCHC a non-profit and non-partisan organization.
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BC Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Health has overall responsibility for ensuring that quality, appropriate, cost effective and timely health services are available for all British Columbians.
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BC Patient Advisory Committee
The Patient Advisory is composed of 10 volunteer members from across BC. Members review and provide input on research projects based on their personal experience as a patients, share information with their networks, and support and advise the Advisory Committee and the BC-PHCRN leadership. The Patient Advisory is currently engaged in designing a provincial primary health care priority setting project.
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BC Primary Health Care Research Network
The BC Primary Health Care Research Network (BC-PHCRN) is one of 11 Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) Primary and Integrated Health Care Innovations (PIHCI) networks in Canadian provinces/territories, designed to support evidence-informed transformation of the delivery of primary and integrated health care.
The BC-PHCRN is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
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Centre for Rural Health Research – Patients Travelling From Urban Geographies To Rural Hospitals For Procedural Care: A Realist Consideration
Centralization has been shown to have deleterious consequences for many rural patients and to contribute to population health disadvantage among rural Canadians. Meanwhile, increasing distance to basic care has been shown to have dramatic negative consequences for the health outcomes in BC.
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Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health (Australia)
The Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health exists to provide leadership in rural and remote mental health research and program delivery. We work closely with rural communities and our valued partners to provide evidence-based service design, delivery and education around the country.
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BC Primary Health Care Research Network
BC Primary Health Care Research Network: Home to the BC arm of the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (BC-CPCSSN)
The BC Primary Health Care Research Network (BC-PHCRN) is one of 11 Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) Primary and Integrated Health Care Innovations (PIHCI) networks in Canadian provinces/territories, designed to support evidence-informed transformation of the delivery of primary and integrated health care.
Visit: BC Primary Health Care Research Network
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So what are community health centres? CHCs are non-profit primary care organizations that provide integrated health care and social services, with a focus on addressing the social determinants of health. Five commonly accepted characteristics include:
1. CHCs provide team-based inter-professional primary care that includes a range of health care and social service providers, including social workers, family physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, dieticians, occupational therapists, clinical pharmacists, physiotherapists, respiratory therapists, cross-cultural health brokers, First Nations elders, mental health counsellors, and outreach workers, among others.
2. CHCs integrate medical care, mental health and substance use services, health promotion and chronic disease management programs. Many CHCs also provide vision and dental care.
3. CHCs are community-governed and responsive to the patients/members they serve. This means that they are legally established as non-profit societies or co-operatives and provide open membership to their patients (who are members of the organization). It also means that patient-members can participate on the board of directors and in other parts of the governance of the organization.
4. CHCs actively address the social determinants of health such as poverty, access to housing, education, language barriers and other factors that have a direct impact on health. CHCs take an upstream approach intended to prevent illness and promote wellness.
5. CHCs demonstrate commitment to health equity and social justice, and recognize that disparities in health status among the population are socially, economically, and institutionally structured—and that these disparities are avoidable and unfair. CHCs work to eliminate these health inequities through a community development approach and advocating for public policies that address the upstream determinants of health, including fair taxation, living wages, decent working conditions, safe and affordable housing and quality public services.
To read more, click on: Cohen/Longhurst – The importance of community health centres in BC’s primary care reforms: What the research tells us.
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Entrepreneurial Activities of Rural Coalitions in Advancing Access to Healthcare.
Considerable evidence has advanced the role of citizen-led coalitions (CLC) in supporting the health and social needs of rural citizens. There has been little research focusing on the experiences and strategies of coalitions, with their limited resources and status, in targeting health inequities in their rural communities. The aim of this study was to understand the entrepreneurial strategies and experiences of rural coalitions to effect change in the delivery of health services for their older adult populations.
International Journal for Equity in Health, 18, Article number: 119.
Rush, K.L., Chiasson, M., Butterfield, M., Straka, S., Buckley, B.J. (2019).
Note: It was at this meeting that a suggestion was made to have the participants form a network, which eventually became the BC Rural Health Network
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Read the latest news about team based care, patient medical homes, and primary care networks by clicking on the blue text.
– General Practice Services Committee
– Patient Medical Homes (PMH)
– Primary Care Networks (PCN)
– PMH/PCN – the differences
– Team Based Care
– Videos
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Health Sciences Association
The HSA represents more than 20,000 health care and social services professionals in hospitals, community health settings, child development centres, transition houses, and other community agencies across British Columbia.
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A 1991 study by Kazanjian and colleagues identified that 14.8% of rural physicians (physicians living in communities of 10 000 or less) in British Columbia wished to move.22 A 1998 survey conducted by the British Columbia Medical Association revealed that almost 25% of rural physicians were considering relocation in the next year, while only 4% of urban physicians were planning to relocate.[11]
The majority of these rural physicians were planning to move to larger communities. Factors motivating this desire to move included on-call responsibilities, daily workload issues, on-call remuneration, cultural opportunities, educational opportunities, spousal opportunities, access to specialists, and retirement.[11]
To access, click: Physician retention and recruitment outside urban BC
Thommasen, 2000
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Plan H, implemented by BC Healthy Communities Society, facilitates local government learning, partnership development and planning for healthier communities where we live, learn, work and play. Working together with health authorities, UBCM and the Ministry of Health, PlanH supports the Province’s health promotion strategy.
Plan H – Healthy Housing Action Guide
This guide supports local governments across British Columbia as they create healthy and thriving places for all people.
What you’ll find in this Action Guide:
– Information about healthy housing and its co-benefits
– Actions and examples from B.C. communities
– Funding opportunities and strategies
– A checklist of healthy housing actions
– Further reading and resources
– Local and provincial housing legislation
– A glossary of terms
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The Rural Coordination Centre of BC works on behalf of the
Joint Standing Committee on Rural Issues (JSC), an entity that advises the BC government and the Doctors of BC (formerly the BCMA) on matters pertaining to rural medical practice.
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An investigation of Rural-Citizen-Patient Priorities for Health Planning – SURVEY
Rural Evidence Review Project/Centre for Rural Health Research
Please answer a few questions at the link below to share your health care priorities with us and help us to address the issues that are most important to you and your community.
Find our short, anonymous survey here!
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Citizen Patient Community Participation in Health Care Planning, Decision Making and Delivery through Rural Health Councils – July 2019,
Rural Evidence Review. A scoping review of the international evidence to understand the structure, function and impact of rural health councils that include citizens, patients and communities in health care planning, decision-making and delivery activities. Jude Kornelsen PhD (Principal Investigator), Christine Carthew MPH (Lead Reviewer) and Zeena Yesufu MPH – C (Reviewer)
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Community-Level Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Health Care Providers to Rural and Remote Areas: A Scoping Review – December 2018
International evidence, exploring community-level factors and strategies to facilitate and improve the recruitment and retention of health care providers to rural and remote areas. Conducted through the Rural Evidence Review project.
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Local Evidence for Health Planning through a Rural Lens.
Rural Evidence Review – UBC/Centre for Rural Health Research/Department of Family Practice.
The goal of the Rural Evidence Review (RER) project is to work with rural citizens to provide high quality, useful evidence for rural health care planning in British Columbia. To do this we: (1) ask rural citizens about the health care priorities that matter the most to them and their communities, (2) review the evidence on what we hear, and (3) share what we learn with policy-makers and health administrators in the province. The project is jointly funded by the Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia and Canada’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research.
We are a team of researchers from the Centre for Rural Health Research in the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia. To learn more about the RER team, click here.
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Rural Evidence Review: Patients Travelling From Urban Geographies To Rural Hospitals For Procedural Care: A Realist Consideration – 2018
Will urban patients travel to rural hospitals for elective surgical care?
Under what circumstances?
What are the enablers of satisfaction?
What are the system-level features necessary to support urban-to-rural surgical migration?
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UBC Rural Evidence Review aims to identify highest-priority health needs in rural BC communities
Many residents in rural communities have to travel to other communities for general and specialized care, but this process has its own challenges, such as how to ensure reliable transportation.
As BC continues to face gaps within its rural healthcare system, UBC researchers are working to amplify rural communities’ perspectives in high-level planning processes.
Since starting a year ago, the group of researchers working on the Rural Evidence Review (RER) project has been surveying rural residents from across the province on their experiences and priorities accessing healthcare. Newspapers from communities ranging from Revelstoke to Fort Nelson have been calling for participation from their local residents.
To learn more, click on: UBC Rural Evidence Review aims to identify highest-priority health needs in rural BC communities
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Progress Made in the Rural Road Map
The Rural Road Map Implementation Committee (RRMIC) has made significant progress raising awareness across Canada about the need for improved access to rural health care close to home, as highlighted in the attached update.
College of Family Physicians, Society of Rural Physicians in Canada, CIHI and others
Rural Road Map Implementation Committee Update Summer 2019
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Summit to Improve Health Care Access and Equity for Rural Communities in Canada
The Rural Road Map for Action – 2017
The College of Family Physicians, The Canadian Collaborative Taskforce, Society of Rural Physicians in Canada
Additional Resources and Reports of the Taskforce’s work can be found at: www.cfpc.ca/ARFM_resources
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Select Standing Committee on Health – Looking Forward
Improving Rural Health Care, Primary Care, and Addiction Recovery Programs
2017 Report
British Columbia’s rural population is dispersed over a vast and varied geography – a significant challenge when it comes to the delivery of health care services. Access to quality health care services in rural, remote and isolated communities was a recurring theme during the Committee’s inquiry. Presenters shared that many communities are under-resourced for a number of services, and that a significant increase in the provision of resources and services is required to meet the unique needs of individual communities and to ensure positive health outcomes. How British Columbians physically access health care services, and affordable and accessible transportation and transit, are other key challenges.
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Seniors Advocate – Residential Care Facilities – Directory 2018
The British Columbia Residential Care Facilities Quick Facts Directory lists information for 293 publicly subsidized facilities in British Columbia. On January 31, 2018, we published our third annual Residential Care Facilities Quick Facts Directory. Highlights of new content include:
- facility-level results from OSA’s Residential Care Survey
- information on funded food costs
- a broad range of demographic, care quality/service and facility information
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Seniors Advocate – Residential Care Survey
September 15, 2017
Results of the Office of the Seniors Advocate’s landmark survey of people living in B.C.’s residential care facilities.
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The Society of Rural Physicians of Canada
The SRPC is the national voice of Canadian rural physicians. Founded in 1992, the SRPC’s mission is championing rural generalist medical care through education, collaboration, advocacy and research.
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The BC Rural Centre
To access healthcare articles, videos, etc. click on: BC Rural Centre – Healthcare
To access the BCRC Featured Report
Click on: Rural Health Initiatives in BC
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Workforce retention in rural and remote Australia – determining factors that influence length of practice (Humphreys et al 2002)
Objectives: To ascertain which factors are most significant in a general practitioner’s decision to stay in rural practice and whether these retention factors vary in importance according to the geographical location of the practice and GP characteristics.
Results: Professional considerations — overwhelmingly, on-call arrangements — are the most important factors determining GP retention in rural and remote areas. Rural doctors consistently ranked on-call arrangements, professional support and variety of rural practice as the top three issues, followed by local availability of services and geographical attractiveness. Proximity to a city or large regional centre was the least important factor. Retention factors varied according to geographical location and GPs’ age, sex, family status, length of time in the practice, and hospital duties.
Conclusions: A broad, integrated rural retention strategy is required to address on-call arrangements, provide professional support and ensure adequate time off for continuing medical education and recreation.
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Putting Our Minds Together
Ministry of Health
This document serves as the response to the Ombudsperson’s recommendation 35 of Misfire: The 2012 Ministry of Health Employment Terminations and Related Matters: By December 31, 2017, to the extent that such gaps are found to exist as a result of the review under the preceding recommendation, the Ministry of Health publicly release a plan, with a reasonable timeline and objectives and deliverables, to address the gaps.
It provides a plan, with timelines and milestones, to address each gap It goes further and takes the opportunity to set a new approach for strengthening the culture and infrastructure for research use and knowledge management Ministry-wide. And, it signals the Ministry’s commitment to work with the research community, including the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, as well as other stakeholders, to co-develop solutions for the health system’s toughest challenges.
Further information on the Ministry’s response to the Ombudsperson’s preceding Recommendation 34 is included in Appendix 1
putting-our-minds-together-research-and-knowledge-management-strategy
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