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Special meeting attendance requirement

Medical Staff Leader Connection, November 7, 2007

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Dear medical Staff leader:

Today's medical staff leaders are encountering many challenges, but one of the most difficult-and one we have been least trained to meet-is confronting other practitioners about issues concerning clinical competence, behavior, responsibilities, or ethics.

There are times when we try to carry out this unpleasant task and we are met with what appears to be an impassable roadblock.

For instance, when a medical staff leader or committee feels the need to meet with a practitioner about an issue of possible clinical incompetence, unprofessional conduct, medical record completion, ED call coverage, etc., and the practitioner refuses to meet, what do we do?

Becoming frustrated or taking some form of corrective action (such as suspending the practitioner's privileges or removing him or her from the staff) would lead to a fair hearing/due process situation and would not be the best course of action.

A useful tool for medical staff leaders in these situations is to have a "special meeting attendance requirement" written into your bylaws.
A special meeting attendance requirement might state that whenever a suspected deviation from standard clinical or professional practice is identified, the president of the medical staff or applicable department or committee chair may require the practitioner to confer with him or her or with the committee considering the matter.

A practitioner's failure to appear at such a meeting after two notices would result in an automatic termination of membership and privileges.

Such termination would not give rise to the fair hearing/due process, but would be automatically rescinded upon the practitioner's participation in the previously referenced meeting.

A tool like this can be helpful and prove invaluable to medical staff leaders when they confront the difficult medical staff issues of today.

Joseph Cooper, MD
The Greeley Company

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