Medical Staff

Include a bill of rights in the medical staff bylaws

Medical Staff Leader Connection, April 8, 2010

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The inclusion of physician’s rights in the medical staff bylaws has become more important in recent years as medical staffs rely increasingly on a small group of dedicated leaders to carry out the organization’s work. This move from the traditional town hall democracy approach of governance to one based more on a representative democracy is making many medical staffs more effective in accomplishing their tasks. The latter approach has the staff electing its leaders and allowing them to lead.

To help ensure that such leaders remain responsive to their constituents, some staffs have created bylaws language that gives individual medical staff members clear recourse to be heard. Sometimes, such rights already exist in an organization’s bylaws but are difficult to locate because they are scattered throughout the document. Best practice is to collate this language in the form of a bill of rights in the bylaws.

This week’s tip is adapted from The Greeley Guide to Medical Staff Bylaws, Second Edition by Joseph D. Cooper, MD, CMSL.
 



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