Performance

Technology
The College’s annual licensure renewal process is completed online, and connects directly with their electronic registry. This allows the College to run variance
reports to identify discrepancies on what is being reported with what is known about the physician from previous filings already described. The College’s initial
application process is still paper-based, yet we have learned through our interviews with the College that they are working to bring this process online as well in
the next few years.
Learning from other jurisdictions
The review did not uncover any significant learning from the licensing processes in other Canadian jurisdictions, although we highlight issues on the Agreement
on Internal Trade (AIT) on other aspects of licensing nationally. The international jurisdictions reviewed yielded more insight into how British Columbia could
improve its licensing processes and are covered below.
United States
Physician licensing is managed by each State’s medical board and like BC it is a license to practice medicine and does not indicate or certify competence in a subspecialty.
The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is the US body which is akin to the Royal College in Canada and provides examinations and training
to certify that a physician is qualified to perform a specialty area of medicine. ABMS certification is, like a Royal College certification, required to be granted
privileges in a specialty.
Each State medical board is a member of the Federation of State Medical Boards. One of the notable activities of this organization is their management of the
Federation Physician Data Centre which is a database that includes information on any disciplinary action taken by any State medical board on a physician since
the 1960s. Hence, if a physician has applied for a license in one State, that State medical board can query the database to see if there have been any disciplinary
issues in another State. The database will also notify any hospital or managed care organizations if one of their physicians has recently been disciplined anywhere
in the United States. There is a public component to this database which allows anyone, for a fee, to access information about a physician’s education, medical
specialty, licensure history and locations and information on disciplinary sanctions. 21
21 Federation of State Medical Boards, 2012. Federation Physician Data Centre. Available at: http://www.fsmb.org/m_fpdc.html. [Accessed on March 21, 2012]
Ministry of Health 31
Provincial Review of Physician Licensing, Credentialing, Privileging & Performance Management
© 2012 KPMG LLP, a Canadian limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative
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