Success Story: South Island MSA Award for Community Leadership

This Success Story is a continuation of our weekly series recognizing South Island MSA Annual Award Winners.

Our next award of the evening is for Community Leadership, someone who has fostered physician-to-physician relationships to improve professional and collegial bonds.  For his initiative and collaboration, Dr. Fred Voon provided a warm nomination for Dr. Jason Wale.

It is difficult to find an area of our community that Dr. Wale’s work hasn’t impacted positively.  To name but a few:

• His leadership in starting Opioid Agonist Therapy through the ED has linked in Addictions Medicine and community partners, changing countless lives for the better.
• He initiated an investigation into cost saving measures in the ED with respect to pharmacy choices, to ensure the best use of public health dollars.
• He has worked closely with Dermatology and Immunology to create smoother referral pathways for emergent care to those specialties.
• His ‘gut feeling’ that Island Health has been losing out on Worksafe BC Claims coming through the ED has resulted in a half-million dollar annual benefit for the Health Authority.
• He has been effective in promoting uptake in electronic documentation and dictation to improve the legibility of ED charts. This has resulted in better transitions of care to primary care and specialist colleagues.
• He has been a participant and true leader leader in the Physician Quality Improvement initiative for Vancouver Island.
• And finally, his video with Dr. James Stone on how to apply a Thomas Splint is innovative, educational, and rather entertaining.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to present this Award for Community Leadership to Dr. Jason Wale.