This Success Story concludes our weekly series recognizing South Island MSA Annual Award Winners. Inspired? Please nominate a colleague who has made a difference!
Our final award of the night is for Collaborative Leadership, honouring those who have partnered with the Health Authority and other organizations to lead change. The Executive wishes to recognize the South Island Hospitalist MAiD Program Development Team.
Two years ago, Drs. Milvi Tiislar and Chloe Lemire Elmore witnessed a growing request for MAiD service, with little increase in the number of assessors or providers. They sent an open invitation to their group of 73 physicians, creating an engaged steering committee to define and implement this service through the Hospitalist team. Notable was their commitment to developing the service in a thoughtful and consultative manner, and their sensitivity to some colleagues’ discomfort with providing medical assistance in dying.
Supported by the additional leadership of Drs. Jean Maskey and Alex Otto, there is now a sustainable group of hospitalist MAiD prescribers who handle all of the inpatient MAiD provision at the Victoria General and Royal Jubilee Hospitals. The Hospitalist MAiD Consult Service has been approved by Island Health for a 13-month trial, involving eight hospitalists acting as the MAiD Consultant on rotation, until the end of March 2020. It was also approved by members of South Island Hospitalists Incorporated, so that hospitalists are delivering the service through their collective agreement with the health authority. MAiD-trained hospitalists are also providing an invaluable bridge to outpatient services in the community, by assisting community-based GPs to field the increasing numbers of MAiD referrals.
The hope is that upon completion of their one-year trial, the Hospitalist MAiD Consult Service will be transformed into a permanent part of their scope and delivery of care.
Our thanks and congratulations go to these leaders. I am pleased to present the Award for Collaborative Leadership to Dr. Milvi Tiislar, Dr. Chloe Lemire-Elmore, Dr. Jean Maskey, and Dr. Alex Otto.