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The dos and don'ts of creating a code of conduct policy

Medical Staff Leader Connection, March 31, 2011

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The way your medical staff goes about developing and enforcing a code of conduct policy can affect the policy’s effectiveness. Consider the following dos and don’ts when developing a policy at your institution:
 

Do:

• Distribute a draft of the medical staff’s behavior expectations before the document is finalized
• Ensure a long lead time for discussing draft expectations before the medical staff votes on them
• Encourage constructive criticism and input on the draft expectations from every physician
• Assign an individual to speak directly and privately with each formal and informal opinion leader
• Incorporate changes to the draft expectations that are recommended by physicians who weren’t involved in developing the initial draft
• Communicate openly about the process of developing the expectations policy at every step
• If only a few physicians are angry about the expectations policy after the medical staff has sought their input, develop strategies to reach out to those few physicians
   

Don’t:
 

• Bring a set of expectations of behavior policy to a vote without extensive discussion with physicians beforehand
• Count on the board to draft and adopt a physician behavior policy without lots of physician input and dialogue in advance
• Ignore physicians who are angry or unhappy about the expectations and behavior policy thinking they will just go away
• Try to get expectations or a behavior policy adopted in a hurry; doing so will truncate thorough discussion and lead physicians to feel disenfranchised.
   

This excerpt is from A Practical Guide to Managing Disruptive and Impaired Physicians, Second Edition, by R. Dean White, DDS, MS, and Jonathan H. Burroughs, MD, MBA, FACPE, CMSL.
 

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