2022-2023 Annual Report

Through everything, the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario remained steadfast in our mission to protect the public interest by ensuring physiotherapists provide competent, safe, and ethical care.

We also continued to evolve as a health profession regulator and grow as a dynamic, forward-thinking organization.

Our primary goal was to address the entry to practice challenges in the absence of a clinical exam in a way that is reliable, sustainable and equitable. While several options were considered, we determined that the best way to meet our mandate to protect the public interest was to launch our own clinical exam that would ensure new physiotherapists have the knowledge, skills and abilities to practice safely, competently, and in accordance with professional standards.

Successfully launching the Ontario Clinical Exam (OCE) was a massive undertaking. Today, we are pleased to say that 456 candidates have completed the exam, and an additional 500 people are registered for future exams. This is in addition to 1,031 physiotherapists who received their license through the Exam Exemption Policy that was implemented until a reliable exam was in place. Before the pandemic, we did not anticipate moving into the exam space, but we are proud of what we have accomplished and will continue to accomplish in this new area.

Beyond entry to practice, we created several new resources to assist physiotherapists and the public in understanding two issues commonly seen in complaints — boundaries and communication. These brief videos serve as an important reminder of the intricacies of the therapeutic relationship and the significance of patient-centred care. Additional materials to support understanding in this space will be released next year.

We continued to strengthen our relationships with external stakeholders including other regulators, the Ontario Fairness Commissioner, the Ontario Physiotherapy Association, the Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy Regulators, and the academic community by building a foundation of trust and collaboration. We engaged with other regulators to host learning sessions on equity, diversity and inclusion, we met with Ministry of Health representatives to discuss opportunities to leverage the skills of physiotherapists within the health care system, and we worked alongside the Fairness Commissioner to consider improvements to our registration process. Building these relationships will remain a key focus in the year ahead.

We also completed a comprehensive organizational review and implemented several changes at the staff level. This, combined with the development of strategic initiatives that align with our strategic plan, will help ensure we are achieving our vision and mission, while functioning as a high-performing organization.

Registration: Physiotherapists in Ontario

In 2022-2023 there were 11,484 physiotherapists registered with the College. 705 were newly registered physiotherapists.

Other than Canada, registrants indicated that they were mainly from these five countries:

*Some physiotherapists have shared that they do not identify as male or female. The College recognizes that there are many terms that represent diverse and unique gender experiences, including those of the LGBTQ2S+ community. We will continue to learn about the best way to present this information as more people become comfortable sharing it.

During the registration renewal process for 2023, physiotherapists had the choice to include optional data such as race, Indigenous identity and sex at birth. This information supports data collection for the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). The data elements are set by CIHI to capture an accurate picture of Canada’s health systems and used to identify and accelerate improvements.

The Registration Committee considered 64 cases.

35 cases were from residents who applied under the Exam Exemption Policy. 34 applicants were granted an Independent Practice Certificate with terms, conditions and limitations. 1 applicant was denied.

10 cases where PT Residents participated in a practice assessment as part

of the Exam

Exemption Policy.

19 other cases: 1 applicant

was granted a certificate of registration, 4 applicants were granted a certificate of registration with terms, conditions and limitations

and 14 applicants were denied a certificate of registration.

There were 2 appeals to the Health Professions Review and Appeal Board (HPARB). 1 decision was upheld by HPARB and the other case is still in progress.

The Council, the Registration Committee and College staff worked diligently to find multiple pathways to register those impacted by the discontinuation of the national clinical exam.

www.collegept.org/ontario-clinical-exam

The Ontario Clinical Exam officially launched in October 2022 with 29 candidates completing the first administration of the exam. Numbers steadily increased with each administration, and 166 candidates completed the March exams.

In total, 456 candidates completed the Ontario Clinical Exam between October 2022 and March 2023.

The March 2023 administrations of the Ontario Clinical Exam were the last hybrid exams. Starting in June 2023, the Ontario Clinical Exam will be a fully virtual exam, meaning both candidates and examiners will complete the exam from a location of their choice, like their home or office. A virtual exam allows for greater flexibility for candidates.

More than 500 candidates are scheduled for virtual administrations of the Ontario Clinical Exam between June 2023 and March 2024.

Ontario

Clinical

Exam

Ontario

Clinical

Exam

*The above numbers are representative of the number of candidates who responded to each question. Questions were optional and not all candidates responded to each question.

Quality Assurance:

Ongoing Development and Self-Reflection

Visit www.collegept.org to learn more about Screening Interviews and Assessments.

Quality Assurance

Of the physiotherapists who contact the Quality Assurance team during the screening interview or assessment process:

During the Screening Interview

During the Assessment

*These numbers are representative of surveys post screening interview or assessment surveys that were received between January 2021 and May 2023. Not all registrants who participated in screening interviews or assessments elected to complete a survey.

Investigating Concerns:

The Inquiries, Complaints

and Reports Committee

Common issues considered by the Committee:

• Inadequate communication and boundary violations
• Allegations of sexual abuse
• Fraudulent billing, falsification of records and incomplete records

Decisions by the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee

*Some decisions may include more than one outcome

Decisions by the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee

*Some decisions may include more than one outcome

Outcomes:

The College received 19 decisions from the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board (HPARB) and there were 14 cases appealed to the board.

Patient Relations

The College maintains a program to provide financial assistance for therapy or counselling for patients who have been sexually abused by a physiotherapist.

There were 3 requests from the public for funding for therapy and counselling.

Individuals who meet the criteria are entitled to $17,370 over a five-year period.

Applications approved by Committee: 1

Applications approved by staff: 2

Patient Relations Videos

In response to the number of complaints around communication and boundary violations, the

Patient Relations committee worked alongside staff to create a series of videos to help patients and physiotherapists better understand communication, boundaries and sensitive practice principles.

Videos for patients:

Patient Relations Videos

Videos for Physiotherapists:

www.youtube.com/user/CollegeofPts

Practice Advice:

Providing Guidance on Physiotherapy Practice

The Practice Advisors offer a safe place for physiotherapists, PT Residents, students, patients, employers and others to ask questions about physiotherapy practice. The College has three full-time practice advisors on staff — all registered physiotherapists with different educational and professional practice backgrounds.

In 2022-2023, the Practice Advisors addressed 7,875 inquiries*

*We experienced a brief interruption with data tracking at the beginning of the year. Phone inquiries may be slightly underrepresented.

Connecting with Physiotherapists and Other Stakeholders

Student Outreach

The Practice Advisors delivered a series of half-day interactive workshops to raise awareness of the Boundaries and Sexual Abuse Standard to each of the physiotherapy programs at Ontario Universities and held information sessions about the role of the College with internationally educated physiotherapists and physiotherapist assistants.

• University of Toronto

• University of Ottawa

• McMaster University

• Western University

• Queen’s University

• Ontario Internationally Educated Physical Therapy Bridging Program

Learn more: www.collegept.org/registrants/practice-advice

The College Council is the 17-member governing body and board of directors that sets the strategic policy direction for the College. Council members support our ongoing mandate to protect the public interest by regulating the practice of physiotherapists in Ontario.

For more information about the activities of the College Council, please visit the Council page on the website, www.collegept.org.

College Council

Theresa Stevens

Council President

(Elected Representative)

Jennifer Clifford

Council Vice-President

(Elected Representative)

ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES

Hervé Cavanagh

Anna Grunin

Janet Law

Dennis Ng

Katie Schulz

Karen St. Jacques

ACADEMIC MEMBERS

Sharon Gabison

Pulak Parikh

PUBLIC MEMBERS

Carole Baxter

Jesse Finn

Nitin Madhvani

Richard O’Brien

Tyrone Skanes

Laina Smith

BETH BERGMANN

MONICA CLARK

LEA DAMATA

JULIANA DE CASTRO FARIA

NICOLE GRAHAM

SUE GREBE

GREG HEIKOOP

ENOCH HO

ANGELO KARALEKAS

THERESA KAY

ALIREZA MAZAHERI

ANTOINETTE MEGENS

EINAT MEI-DAN

SAMEERA MERCHANT

TAMMY MORRISEY

HARIKRISHNAN GOPALAKRISHNAN NAIR DANIEL NEGRO

ANASTASIA NEWMAN

VENKADESAN RAJENDRAN

GARY REHAN

RICHA REHAN

FELIX UMANA

JIM WERNHAM

DISCIPLINE AND FITNESS TO PRACTISE COMMITTEE

JIM WERNHAM (CHAIR)

KATIE SCHULZ

JANET LAW

HERVÉ CAVANAGH

KAREN ST. JACQUES

PAUL PARIKH

ANNA GRUNIN

SHARON GABISON

DANIEL NEGRO

ANGELO KARALEKAS

RICHA REHAN

NICOLE GRAHAM

SUE GREBE

THERESA KAY

FELIX UMANA

NITIN MADHVANI

JESSE FINN

RICHARD O’BRIEN

CAROLE BAXTER

LAINA SMITH

THERESA STEVENS (CHAIR)

JENNIFER CLIFFORD

NITIN MADHVANI

CAROLE BAXTER (from June 28, 2022)

HERVÉ CAVANAGH (from June 28, 2022)

TYRONE SKANES (until June 27, 2022)

KATIE SCHULZ (until June 27, 2022)

HARIKRISHNAN GOPALAKRISHNAN NAIR (CHAIR)

(from November 22, 2022)

ALIREZA MAZAHERI (from November 22, 2022)

SAMEERA MERCHANT (from November 22, 2022)

ENOCH HO (from November 22, 2022)

LEA DAMATA (from November 22, 2022)

GREG POPE (from November 22, 2022)

INQUIRIES, COMPLAINTS AND REPORTS COMMITTEE

GARY REHAN (CHAIR)

CAROLE BAXTER

MONICA CLARK (until June 27, 2022)

JENNIFER CLIFFORD (until June 27, 2022)

TAMMY MORRISEY (from June 28, 2022)

ANASTASIA NEWMAN (from June 28, 2022)

DENNIS NG

KATIE SCHULZ (from June 28, 2022)

TYRONE SKANES

KATIE SCHULZ (CO-CHAIR)

TYRONE SKANES (CO-CHAIR)

JESSE FINN

CAROLE BAXTER

JULIANA DE CASTRO FARIA

(from September 23, 2022)

SHALINI LOBO

(from June 28, 2022 until September 22, 2022)

EINAT MEI-DAN (from September 23, 2022)

SHARON GABISON (from September 23, 2022)

PAUL PARIKH

ANTOINETTE MEGENS (CHAIR)

DENNIS NG

RICHARD O’BRIEN (from June 28, 2022)

JENNIFER CLIFFORD (from June 28, 2022) VENKADESAN RAJENDRAN (from June 28, 2022) LAINA SMITH

BETH BERGMANN (until June 27, 2022)

HERVÉ CAVANAGH (until June 27, 2022)

JESSE FINN (until June 27, 2022)

KAREN ST. JACQUES (CHAIR)

ANNA GRUNIN

GREG HEIKOOP (from June 28, 2022)

NITIN MADHVANI (until June 27, 2022)

RICHARD O’BRIEN

FINANCE COMMITTEE

JANET LAW (CHAIR)

JENNIFER CLIFFORD

JESSE FINN

ANNA GRUNIN

NITIN MADHVANI

THERESA STEVENS

THE CANADIAN ALLIANCE OF PHYSIOTHERAPY REGULATORS REPRESENTATIVE

GARY REHAN

Nitin Madhvani

Council President as of June 2023

Craig Roxborough, PhD

Registrar & CEO as of May 2023

Nitin Madhvani

Council President as of June 2023

Leadership Changes

In June 2023, Nitin Madhvani assumed the role of Council President.

Nitin is a public member of Council, and the first

non-physiotherapist to hold this position. Nitin has served the public interest for 15 years through various roles in the health care, mass transit and utilities sectors in Ontario and British Columbia. He is currently an Account Executive with Salesforce, helping hospitals and health systems transform how they manage relationships with patients. Nitin is a graduate of the Ivey Business School at Western University.

Craig Roxborough, PhD

Registrar & CEO as of May 2023

Leadership Changes

Craig Roxborough, PhD joined the College as Register & CEO

in May 2023.

Craig has been in the regulatory sector for 10 years having held

a number of progressive leadership positions at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO). In his role as

Director of Policy at CPSO he has supported the development and implementation of many strategic regulatory and policy initiatives covering a range of regulatory and professionalism issues. Through this work Craig has demonstrated a firm commitment to supporting health care professionals and serving the public interest, and has a track record of building strong and collaborative relationships with stakeholders and the government.

Craig has a Master’s degree and PhD in Philosophy from

York University and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Philosophy and Mathematics from the University of Toronto.

The College Performance Measurement Framework (CPMF) is a reporting tool developed by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with experts and regulatory Colleges.

The tool was developed to help health regulatory colleges demonstrate their performance as regulators to stakeholders. It is meant to support continuous

improvement in regulators’ practices.

The report is organized into seven measurement domains. In six of the seven domains, the Ministry has identified a series of performance expectations against which colleges will self-assess their performance. There is no “mark” associated with this report. Instead, colleges are encouraged to identify improvement activities in areas where they do not fully meet the performance expectation.

The College has completed the third annual CPMF report about our performance in 2022.

We continue to strive to improve our performance against the standards set out in the CPMF tool.

Of the 50 items for which there is a performance expectation, the College fully met 28 of them.

The College’s performance was particularly strong in Domain 6: Suitability to Practice. The standards in this domain are focused on the College’s core regulatory mandate to register competent physiotherapists, ensure continued competence of physiotherapists once they are registered,

and to effectively respond to complaints. Of the 16 items in this domain, the College fully met

13 of them and partially met three.

For the 22 items that the College did not fully meet, we are committed to completing improvement activities to improve our performance in 2023. While the College has identified numerous improvement activities across multiple domains, our priority is to fully implement items that the Ministry has identified as representing attributes of regulatory excellence, which include:

• Implementing competency criteria for professional members of Council and statutory committees
• Developing and presenting a human resources plan to Council
• Making improvements to our cybersecurity measures, policies, and practices
• Implementing an Enterprise Risk Management framework.

In the report, we also highlight our ongoing engagement with system partners and stakeholders to align oversight of the physiotherapy profession and to respond to changing public and societal expectations.

In 2022, we continued to work with key partners such as the Ministry of Health, other health regulatory colleges in Ontario, the Citizen Advisory Group, and more.

The College will continue to hold ourselves accountable to our improvement activities as we work towards better performance by regularly reporting on the progress of the CPMF improvement activities.

Read a summary of our 2022 CPMF report.

In 2022–2023, ten Discipline Hearings were completed at the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario.

See a complete list of past Discipline Hearings and decisions by visiting CanLII.org or www.collegept.org.

Be sure to visit the College’s Public Register, also known as Find a Physiotherapist, to access important information before visiting a physiotherapist.

All regulated health care providers have a similar Public Register on their College’s website. See a complete list of Public Registers at ontariohealthregulators.ca

In 2022–2023, there were ten Discipline Hearings:

• Bahram Bararian — Former Registration #14703
  
• Clark, E. Anne — Registration #10627
  
• Fortuno, Christopher — Registration #15717
  
• Nogueira, Stephanie — Registration #15668
  
• Richards, Dillon J. — Former Registration #20382
  
• Roscala-Bonilla, Raul-Armando — Registration Number #14413
  
• Shahbad, Zafar Iqbal Mushtaq — Registration Number #18449
  
• Spremulli, Paolina — Registration Number #13682
  
• Trambulo, Joseph — Registration #11391
  
• Whelan, Jeff — Registration #09138

(April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023)

The College of Physiotherapists of Ontario Council approved the audited financial statements for the year ending March 31, 2023.

For a complete set of audited financial statements or an accessible format of the financial statements, contact Zoe Robinson, VP, Finance and Reporting at zrobinson@collegept.org

or 1-800-583-5885 ext. 244.