This article originally appeared in the September/October 2020 issue of the Ontario Medical Review magazine.
Modernizing the Ontario Medical Association
Delegates to the OMA’s Fall Council this November will have the opportunity to consider transformational governance changes to enable the OMA to be a more integrated, better performing, and more focused organization to deliver on the priorities that matter most to members.
Members have long complained that the OMA’s outdated governance structure slows down progress for doctors and does not always reflect the priorities of the whole of the profession. That is why major, member-driven transformation was started in 2018.
For example, members have expressed frustration about the Association not being democratic enough.
That is why, as part of the package of reforms, members would participate in an open and democratic election process where they would directly elect both the OMA’s Board of Directors and President.
Further, all members would have a direct vote on the Physician Services Agreement (PSA) between the OMA and government.
These changes create clear, democratic accountability mechanisms between members and their elected representatives that do not currently exist.
Similarly, members have complained that the roles and responsibilities of the Board and Council are unclear and overlapping, leading to conflict and confusion.
Under the proposed transformation, these roles would be clarified to give the Board of Directors organizational oversight while a re-energized leadership body of physician delegates would lead generative thinking, focused on driving and shaping priorities in health care policy.
One change which has already been endorsed by Board and Council is reducing the size of the Board of Directors from 25 to 11. Smaller boards make better decisions, are more likely to call out poor performance, and are less likely to fall into group think. Reducing the size of the OMA’s unusually large Board will also create significant cost savings for members.
These changes will empower more members to directly influence OMA policy and direction through opportunities to participate in member-driven, focused working groups.
The changes are entirely member-driven and come after hundreds of interviews with Directors, Council Delegates, Section, District and Fora chairs and regular members.
Universally, surveys and feedback have confirmed a desire for input into priority setting to better position the OMA to deliver results that matter to its members.
The OMA is focused on providing high value for its members. By continuing to execute against 2020 objectives, that focus includes:
On behalf of all of you, I would like to recognize the leadership team of the Joint Taskforce on Governance Transformation (GT20) with the Co-Chairs, Dr. Paul Hacker and Dr. Lisa Salamon, as well as the committee members Dr. Sanjay Acharya, Dr. Paul Conte, Dr. Tim Nicholas, and Dr. Samantha Hill. This committee has been significantly supported by the Board of Directors, our Past-President Dr. Sohail Gandhi, the partners at SuccessMap and the staff at the OMA.
Allan O’Dette
OMA Chief Executive Officer
A version of this article was originally published on Canadian Healthcare Network.