Supporting Community-based Specialists

Learn more about supporting community-based specialists:

Access supports

The SSC is engaging with community-based specialists without hospital or health authority privileges to understand your needs and better support you. A number of supports have been arranged to date.

	Spoken Language Interpreting Services Access on-demand interpretation services for patients in your community practice. Available at no cost to specialists and teams - 24/7 by telephone in about 240 languages Learn more
	UpToDate Get clinical decision support online with access to the latest evidence, best practices and clear guidance to complex questions. Available through a no-cost subscription. Learn More
	CareConnect View electronic health information for patient encounters, lab results, diagnostic imaging and clinical documents. Secure access is available 24/7 to community based specialists. Learn More
	Physician Business Services Get customized support, resources, information, and expert advice to navigate the current operational needs of your practice. Available from Doctors of BC. Learn More
	Zoom for Healthcare Get a Zoom for Healthcare license to deliver virtual care. Currently available for no cost. Learn More
	Physician Quality Improvement We are working to improve how we engage community-based physicians with quality improvement training and supports. Learn More
	Community Physician Health and Safety Program The program supports and enhances workplace health and safety for all physicians who work in the community along with their support staff. Learn More

Background: Supporting Community-based Specialists

2019: At the Specialists Symposium in 2019, SSC collected feedback on how it can better support all specialists in their work. Supporting community-based specialists without affiliation with hospitals and health authorities was identified as a need, resulting in SSC making it a key priority moving forward.
2020: Early in 2020, the Doctors of BC board with endorsement by the Representative Assembly, acknowledged the unique concerns of community-based specialists, and the need for SSC to increase support for this group.
2021: To better understand the unique needs of community-based specialists without hospital privileges, SSC heard from about 30 community-based specialists representing 12 specialties from across the province. As part of five focus groups, these community-based specialists reflected on potential gaps and opportunities within SSC’s mandate and scope of work, and identified concrete and actionable priorities for SSC in these theme areas:
- Theme 1: CBS carry a tremendous “burden of business” significantly contributing to fatigue and burnout
- Theme 2: CBS do not feel sufficiently connected to colleagues
- Theme 3: Developing capabilities and training