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Preparing for the MEC meeting

Medical Staff Leader Connection, September 13, 2006

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We are going to spend the next few issues of MS Leader Connection discussing the topic of how to have great Medical Executive Committee (MEC) meetings.  And the good news is that the principles that are used to make MEC meetings efficient and productive can be applied to other medical staff organization committee meetings.

The anatomy can be broken into the following components: 

• Preparation for the meeting
• Attending/conducting the meeting
• Follow-up 

This week, let's start with preparation for the meeting.  If the answer is "yes" to any of the following questions - there is room for improvement in the preparation for MEC meetings. 

• Have you ever been to an MEC meeting when a last-minute agenda item (a non-critical item) was added and it took up most of the meeting?
• Does an agenda item state: "Report from Surgery Department" or "Report from the Quality Committee" with no further details? (Hint - the action items from the Surgery Department or Quality Committee to the MEC should be itemized on the MEC agenda.)
• If you are a member of the MEC  - is it obvious that the Chief of Staff has not seen the agenda before he/she sat down at the meeting?
• If you are the Chief of Staff - is the first time you see the MEC agenda at the meeting?
• Is it routine that individuals who were supposed to be prepared to provide information at the meeting are unprepared and agenda items then get tabled?
• Are you asked to make major decisions at the MEC meeting with insufficient time for review and consideration?
• Is the MEC agenda packet so large that it has to be placed in a 2-inch binder? 

Here is what should happen to properly plan for the MEC meeting: 

• The Medical Staff Professional (MSP) should prepare a draft agenda about 10 days prior to the meeting.  The draft agenda should contain all follow-up business and all action items (or important issues that the MEC should know about) from all committees and groups that report to the MEC.
• The MSP and the Chief of Staff should meet to review the draft agenda (in some organizations, the group that reviews the draft agenda also includes the Medical Staff Officers and the CEO).  This is a planning meeting.  During this planning process, the group determines if additional information is needed for any agenda item(s), identifies key individuals who must be at the meeting in order to present information or serve as a resource, times the agenda (to make sure that there is sufficient time allotted for critical issues and that you aren't trying to squeeze a 3-hour meeting into a 1-hour time period).  As a result of this planning process, some medical staff organizations use a "consent agenda."  We will discuss consent agendas next week.
• Once the agenda is planned, it is finalized by the MSP.  This usually occurs about 7 days prior to the meeting.  Once the agenda is finalized, no one can add anything to the agenda, without the permission of the Chief of Staff.  The MSP also makes sure that all individuals who have been scheduled to be present at the meeting to provide information or serve as a resource have been notified and agree to be at the meeting.
• The agenda and important attachments (i.e., a copy of the new proctoring policy that has been recommended for approval by the Credentials Committee, for example) are made available to all members of the MEC at least 5 days prior to the meeting.  Progressive medical staff organizations are making these documents (agenda and important attachments) available to MEC members electronically, rather than sending out huge binders. 

Taking the time to thoughtfully prepare for an MEC meeting will help assure successful outcomes and participants who are willing to attend meetings. 

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