FROM THE REGISTRAR’S DESK
Proposing a
Fundamental Change
W
Rocco Gerace, MD
Registrar
photo: D.W. Dorken
We live in a new era of
expectations and the
practices of health-care
regulators must reflect
this reality.
e live in a new era
of expectations
and the practices of health-care
regulators must reflect this reality.
Over the last two years, we have
been exploring ways to make our
decisions and processes more
transparent to the public. We have
collaborated with five other healthcare regulators in Ontario who also
see the need to make more information available to the public both
about their members, and about the
effectiveness of professionally-led
regulation, in general.
Why have we all chosen to go
down this path? Because for the
public to trust that the system
works, we need to demonstrate that
the system works.
The Advisory Group for Regulatory Excellence (AGRE) understands that we must demonstrate
accountability to the public which
we serve.
At its meeting in December,
Council took a big step – perhaps
the biggest to date – towards greater
transparency. Council members
approved the consultation of
proposed by-laws that contemplate
posting certain information resulting from the investigations process.
Making information about
Inquiries, Complaints and Reports
Committee (ICRC) outcomes available to the public is a fundamental
change from how we’ve done things
in the past. We did not move lightly
toward this decision. Council took
a deliberately thoughtful approach,
carefully balancing transparency
and fairness and using the principles developed by AGRE to bring
a strong measure of consistency.
In determining which ICRC
outcomes should be made public,
AGRE has used the measurement
of risk. The greater the potential
risk to the public, the more important transparency becomes.
Two ICRC outcomes – a caution-in-person and an order for a
Specified Continuing Education
or Remediation Program (SCERP)
– are reflective of moderate risk.
And for that reason, AGRE recommended that they be public.
The proposed by-laws also contemplate posting criminal charges,
discipline findings in other jurisdictions and medical licences held elsewhere. This information is already
Issue 4, 2014 Dialogue
7