Benefits of MSH Affiliation
Hi,
For those of you who are not affiliated with Markham Stouffville Hospital, I have a message to pass on to you from Dr. Allan Grill, our MSH Chief of Family Medicine, and I highly encourage you to consider applying for MSH hospital privileges. Please see below
Thanks,
Dr. Emilie Lam
Primary Care Lead, Eastern York Region North Durham Ontario Health Team
----
To my EYRND Ontario Health Team (OHT) family physician colleagues,
I hope this email finds you and your families well during these challenging times.
As the Chief of the Department of Family Medicine at Markham Stouffville Hospital (MSH), it has become clear to me that the pandemic has highlighted the need for better communication between our hospital and community based family doctors, as well as among each other. Managing a family practice and taking care of patients while balancing interests outside of medicine is a full time job. Then along comes COVID-19 and all of a sudden we are expected to make immediate changes to our offices (e.g. virtual care) and keep up with the latest literature coming at us at full speed - on top of everything else!
So I’m here to ask you to consider joining our Department of Family Medicine at MSH as I believe it will help address the above and more.
For starters, let’s talk about access to up to date information. Sure, there are several organizations that have been putting out quality emails and documents about the COVID-19 pandemic - the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), Ontario Health, the Centre for Effective Practice (CEP), the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP), the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), the UofT Department of Family & Community Medicine (DFCM) - but do you have time to track them all down? Are you able to organize all of these for quick and easy access?
To make your lives a bit easier, I try to organize this type of info into a monthly departmental newsletter called “Hot off the Grill”. It gets emailed to you directly and you can refer back to it via an email link whenever it is convenient. My open rates have been 70% and above, so the current members of our department seem to find it useful. I have given access to members of the OHT during the pandemic, but this is temporary. Please click on some sample newsletters below both from before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to see what you think.
Email Link https://conta.cc/3en7SGi (COVID-19)
Email Link https://conta.cc/2V81rza (COVID-19)
Email Link https://conta.cc/2UcXbxC (COVID-19)
Email Link https://conta.cc/2suwBWN (non-COVID-19)
Email Link https://conta.cc/2XZ4Lwx (non-COVID-19)
Did you know that being credentialed at MSH also includes free access to UpToDate (https://www.uptodate.com/home/why-uptodate), a very popular medical search engine on numerous topics that can be used in real time at your offices. If you subscribe on your own, it's over $500.00 US per year. The cost of being credentialed is less (see below), so your privileges pay for themselves with this feature alone.
Every member of our department gets their own @MSH.on.ca email address. Now I know what you are thinking - why would I need yet another email address? Well, it allows you to get important info from the hospital on timely medical issues - especially during a pandemic. It also grants you better access to specialists for advice and consultations. Our specialists are great at emailing colleagues back who have privileges. So if you have a quick question before you decide to send a whole referral letter, you can take advantage.
Many people ask me, why would I get credentialed if I have no intention of doing any more clinical work, especially within the hospital? The answer is: no problem!
About 60% of our family physician members do not do any clinical work inside our walls and their category is called “Care Provider Access”. It gives them all of the above perks, and they get access to Meditech, the MSH EMR, so they can check results on their own family practice patients that get admitted. They also have no obligation to attend Grand Rounds, Medical Staff Association meetings, etc. It’s about being part of a stronger local family medicine community, and your engagement level is up to you. Of course, if you want to be more involved with the hospital committees, there is ample opportunity.
There are also some opportunities to participate in clinical work at MSH - low risk obstetrics, surgical assists, newborn care etc. depending on supply and demand. These procedural privileges are separate from being a member of the department, and I am happy to chat with anyone who is interested.
We also host 3-4 free CME events annually called “Breakfast Medicine”. These take place at MSH (so you feel part of the department, literally) early in the morning (07:15) before your clinic starts and end around 09:30. You get a bite to eat and CFPC Mainpro credits to boot! Speakers include both specialists and family physicians speaking on relevant primary care topics that members help to suggest. These have received strong reviews on our evaluations.
On a personal note, it also helps me to have a strong sounding board when the hospital is looking for advice on primary care issues. A strong department can help shape policies, especially as they relate to the current MSH strategic plan ‘Care beyond our walls’ (https://www.msh.on.ca/about-us/strategic-plan-2019-2022)
Finally, the big question - what does this cost? There is a fee for renewing your privileges each year on an electronic system called CMaRS ($75.00), a departmental fee I charge of $50.00 to raise money for social events, usually initiated by our members, and a fee for the Medical Staff Association ($75.00) which advocates for credentialed physicians and arranges social events for physicians and their families among other things. So the whole cost is $200.00 - still less than an UpToDate subscription.
In my first year as Chief of the department (2019), I recruited 8 new members. I hope to recruit many more during my 5 year term.
If the above sounds interesting to you, please consider joining our department. It has never been a more opportune time. Between the current pandemic and the growth of our OHT under the leadership of Dr. Emilie Lam (another member of our department by the way), family physicians in our area need to support each other despite our different clinical interests and practice types. The better organized we are, the stronger our voice will be.
The application process is easy. Just email me at agrill@msh.on.ca to get started.
Hope to hear from you.
Stay healthy,
Allan
Allan Grill MD, CCFP (COE), MPH, FCFP, CCPE
Associate Professor, Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Toronto
Chief, Dept. of Family Medicine, Markham Stouffville Hospital
