Case Study - Registering Residents in UBC’s Medicine Programs

Business Problem

The University of British Columbia has a large complex Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) department for its medical residency programs.  Being one of the largest medical resident training programs in Canada, the registration and appointing of residents through their medical training was a large and very labor intensive process. 

Paper was extensively used for the registration process, and the PGME office spent much of its time fielding calls from residents enquiring about their statuses and chasing down registration requirements from the applicants.

Solution

Building off of STAR’s CV data management system, Acuity worked with UBC’s Postgraduate medical Education office to create a workflow management system that helps streamline this complex endeavor.

STAR’s PGME module comes complete with:

1. an upload function for CaRMS resident information
2. a series of customizable forms/checklists for data gathering and uploading of supporting documentation
3. an email reminder system to remind residents of their outstanding requirements
4. a complete review/approval process for management.

At the click of a button, UBC’s PGME office can now open the registration period for the upcoming academic year, upload the list of new residents obtained from CaRMS (Canadian Resident Matching Service) directly into STAR, securely send each resident the proper forms/checklists to complete forms and attach supporting documentation from the comfort of their home.

Administrators can also send periodic reminders of the status of each of the university’s registration requirements to residents during the registration period. 

Completed forms and supporting documentation (insurances and other fees paid, appropriate immunizations received, etc) are automatically sent to department heads for review and approval.

Benefits to UBC

This functionally saves countless hours for the PGME office administrators and allows for a better registration process for the university and the residents coming to UBC’s medical program.

Costly paper is no longer an integral part of the UBC resident registration process.  Documents are no longer lost.

Documents are no longer lost, misplaced or in the wrong order.

Administrators and residents can check on the status of this registration at any time.  This lessens the number of phone calls to the PGME office and allows administrators to send reminder emails to residents regarding their outstanding requirements.

Information gathered about the residents, including contact information, requirements met, and supporting documentation is all stored digitally and can be easily retrieved for reviewing and reporting purposes at any time. 

A complete history of a resident’s career in UBC’s medical programs is retrievable and easy to transition into STAR’s Faculty Reappointment module.

Case Study - STAR Points System

Business Problem

In a fee-for-service medical system, there is little incentive for practicing physicians to contribute to administration, research or education within a University environment.  It then becomes essential to ensure that all members of a faculty have motivation to share their knowledge and expertise (perform teaching activities), contribute to the furthering of the community and university (administration) and perform research. Universities will often adopt an Alternate Funding Plan (AFP) or Alternate Relationship Plan (ARP) to help balance compensation across patient care, research, education and administration. 

In order to implement an AFP, there must be a way to quantitatively compare member contributions.  In most faculties of medicine, there is no standardized process for this comparison.

STAR’s Solution

The STAR system was built to support an alternative funding plan within a faculty of medicine.   The system provides a department specific points system, whereby each department can allocate points to various activity types.  Once activities are entered, points are allocated, quantitative reports can be generated at a department or even faculty level to compare and contrast contributions by individual members or total contributions at a department or division level.

The allocation of points is completely configurable and available to each department administrator.  Some examples of points accumulating activities include:

Publications:

• a point number can be allocated to each type of publication.
• a point multiplier can be allocated to the authorship role of the member.

Administrative committees:

• a point number can be allocated to each committee species.
• point multipliers can be allocated to roles and committee scope.

The STAR points system is currently used by the University of Western Ontario and the University of Ottawa.