Retiring, Closing or Relocating Your Practice

Take the necessary steps to manage staffing, patient care, professional obligations, medical records, and business affairs before your departure.

Staff

• If possible, give your staff and office colleagues time to comfortably adjust to your decision to leave the practice.
• Refer to BC Employment Standards for severance requirements.
• See the Human Resource Toolkit for additional information.
• For additional support, connect with a Business Advisor.
• Legal advice or an official Human Resource business can provide clarity for complicated agreements or understanding employment law.
• Consider offering a bonus, if possible, to employees willing to stay until the practice is closed, or even after closure, to help with final tasks.

Make your clinic attractive to successors

Bringing a locum into your practice could provide an opportunity for future takeover.

• Review The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC's information on locum license.
• Review information from Doctors of BC on locum compensation.
• Post a locum position on BC Family Doctors or Locums for Rural BC.
• Download the subcontractor locum agreement.

Position your clinic for a successful recruitment

Optimizing your clinic can make it more attractive to a new physician taking over.

• A patient panel assessment can assist with determining which patients are considered active, and should therefore be notified of your plans at least three months in advance. Undertake a patient panel assessment.
• For information on how to receive in-practice EMR support and compensation, contact the Practice Support Program (PSP).
• Panel Management can support physician recruitment and patient continuity of care.
• Review and optimize your EMR, office layout, staffing, colleagues, office manual (clinic policies), financials, and agreements to make your clinic attractive to an incoming physician.
• For family physicians, reach out to your local Division of Family Practice for help identifying nearby clinics with capacity.
• Be prepared with information about patient demographics.
• Determine how many FTE the new physician is—based on time in office or billings—could impact recruitment bonuses.

Before you leave practice, you are obligated to notify certain professional associations or programs.

Frame your message using the departure notice template.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC (CPSBC)

• Review the Leaving Practice Standard and provide as much advance notice as possible via CBSBC's Resignation and Retirement form.
• Once you have closed practice, let them know where your medical records will be stored. Contact CPSBC.

Longitudinal Family Physician (LFP) Payment Model

If you are enrolled in the LFP Payment Model and planning to retire, move, or close your clinic, contact the FPSC Billing Support Team at FP.billing@doctorsofbc.ca.

Business Cost Premium (BCP) payments

Physicians who no longer work at an office where they are attached to a Business Cost Premium (BCP) facility number must submit the form to indicate cancellation of the attachment.

• Submit the online application.
• Fill, print, and mail the Practitioner Attachment to MSP Facility Number for Business Cost Premium form to Health Insurance BC.
• Change the status of your medical corporation to inactive by contacting the College of Physicians of Surgeons of BC (CPSBC).

Your colleagues

• Use the notification template to help craft messaging to your colleagues who regularly consult or refer patients to you.

Other professional associations to consider notifying include:

• BC Medical Services Plan
• Canadian Medical Protective Association
• Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for payroll and corporate tax status, if applicable
• Pathways BC
• Doctors of BC’s membership and insurance departments
• LifeLabs and/or any diagnostic facilities
• WorkSafeBC, if applicable
• ICBC, if applicable
• Hospitals, facilities, and/or residential care homes
• Pharmacies

Giving your patients as much advanced notice as possible is important for their continuity of care and your peace of mind. Use these templates to help frame your message.

• Departure announcement: new physician takeover
• Departure announcement: searching for replacement physician

If transitioning your patients to a new physician

• Notify patients and colleagues that you plan to leave and have found a new physician to take over the practice, at least 90 days in advance.
• Contact a medical record storage service in advance of transferring records to the physician who is taking over.

If relocating to a new practice

• Notify patients and colleagues of your new location at least 90 days in advance. Inform them about accessing their records and other continuity-of-care options available to them.

If closing your practice

• If you are unable to find a new physician to take on your patients, advanced notice will be important to ensure patients can make alternative arrangements.

Templates to help with messaging

• Email: Departure announcement—no new physician to takeover
• Notice: Departure notice—printable office poster
• Voicemail: Departure notice—sample voicemail script

Add information to your website about the clinic closure.

Managing medical records

• Notify CSPBC of the location and accessibility of all medical records.
• Ownership of medical records does not end when leaving a practice; the obligations of security, confidentiality, accessibility, and retention still apply. However, ownership can be delegated through a mutual written, signed agreement.
• Medical records must be stored in a safe, secure place for at least 16 years from the date of the last entry. Records for minors must be kept for at least 16 years from the age of majority (19 years of age).
• After the retention period ends, records should be destroyed in a confidential manner.

The transfer of medical records can be made to:

• Another physician, with the patient's consent.
• A storage facility remaining in the custody of the original physician.
• MedRecords offers digitization, storage, and legal destruction of medical records.
• For more details on medical record management, see the CPSBC Medical records management practice standard.
• Have a Data Sharing Agreement in place when necessary to keep access to the records of patients if required.
• The Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) provides guidance on the storage, retention, and transfer of medical records.

Tip: Ensure medical record storage and retention are included in your estate planning in the event of an unanticipated departure.

Office space and employees

• Organize and compile employee contracts for transition purposes.
• Identify salary, deduction costs, duration of employment, and skills/experience and provide information to your bookkeeper or accountant.
• Organize and compile agreements with suppliers and technology companies.
• Include monthly costs, contract end/renewal dates, and transition fees.

Equipment

• Consider the costs of moving equipment to a new practice location, or, if no new physician is taking over your practice, selling or donating it.
• BC Medical Journal (BCMJ) or local community posting platforms.
• Refer to the Recycling Council of BC for items that cannot be sold or donated, and proper waste management requirements for your area.
• Determine disposal of medications and medical supplies.

Agreements with colleagues

• Refer to any of your current agreements (Governance, Cost-Sharing, and Health Authority, etc.) to best understand your obligations, including the amount of advanced notice required.

Finances and legal

• Contact your financial advisor to discuss options for transitioning to a non-medical corporation, dissolving your corporation, tax implications, etc. You can also discuss final tax filings, payroll, ROEs, etc.
•  Determine minimum financial requirements and anticipated annual expenses to live comfortably during retirement.

Review leases, EMR contracts, staffing, and vendor agreements. Include monthly costs, contract end/renewal dates, and transition fees.