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Medical Staff Leader Connection

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Medical Staff Leader Connection

Issue 51, December 27, 2006

• Joint Commission posts proposed disruptive behavior standard

  The Joint Commission on Dec. 21 posted to its Web site a proposed standard for disruptive behavior...

Issue 50, December 20, 2006

• Leaderhship role in credentialing

  Fast tracking of applications is a worthwhile goal, for seldom is there any benefit in having the...

• Foreign medics sentenced to death in Libya AIDS case

  A Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian physician to death on Dec. 19...

Issue 49, December 13, 2006

• Recognize outgoing leaders, prepare new leaders for their roles

  While you are contemplating how you plan to acknowledge your outgoing medical staff leaders, also...

• Medical staff organizations: A failed model?

  Rather than providing accountability for quality, medical staff organizations (MSO) are often a...

Issue 48, December 5, 2006

• Expedited versus fast-track credentialing

  There is now a tremendous push in many hospitals to get practitioners credentialed in a matter of...

• JCAHO releases 2008 National Patient Safety Goals for review

  The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations released on Dec. 4 a list of...

Issue 47, November 28, 2006

• AMA physicians want more input with JCAHO

  Delegates to the American Medical Association's (AMA) House of Delegates criticized the JCAHO for...

• Introducing new procedures and technologies

  Organizations that are determined to dot the Is and cross the Ts when it comes to adding new...

• Sample new technology/procedure request form

  Sample new technology/procedure request form

Issue 46, November 15, 2006

• A new look at medical staff categories

  In many medical staff organizations, physician leaders are finding that old categories don't fit...

• Study: Younger and female physicians working less

  The workload of Canadian general and family practitioners (GP/FP) under age 55 has declined in the...

Issue 45, November 6, 2006

• A letter from the trenches

  Last week, I was working with one of our Medical Staff Institute clients (Marshall Medical Center...

• Medical boards look to ease license portability

  The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) hopes to ease license portability for physicians...

Issue 44, November 1, 2006

• Too many meetings, too little time: Evaluate the effectiveness of committees

  As medical staff organizations all over the country prepare to make committee assignments that take...

• Survey: Physician morale suffering

  Physicians are burned out, stressed out, and they’ve just about had it with the current state...

• Tool for evaluating committees

  Use this tool to evaluate the effectiveness of committees.

Issue 43, October 25, 2006

• Proctoring versus precepting

  The Joint Commission, in their 2007 standards for the Medical Staff, have introduced a new concept...

• AHA seeks edits to revisions of MS.1.20

  The American Hospital Association (AHA), in a letter to the accrediting body on Oct. 23, expressed...

Issue 42, October 18, 2006

• Confidentiality agreement for medical staff members

  The following is a sample confidentiality agreement for medical staff members:

• CA medical board to report physician race, languages spoken

  A California law signed Sept. 29 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger requires the Medical Board of...

Issue 41, October 11, 2006

• The director of medical staff services’ role defined

  In last week's column, I wrote about the collaboration that is necessary between medical staff...

• MA coalition launches initiative to reduce medication errors

  A Massachusetts coalition launched a state-wide initiative October 11 to reduce medication errors...

Issue 40, October 4, 2006

• Credentialing experts: The credentials committee chair and the MSP

  This issue, I'd like to share an e-mail that I recently received from a medical staff...

• NAMSS asking JCAHO to drop MS.1.20 revisions

  The National Association of Medical Staff Services (NAMSS) is urging the JCAHO to discontinue its...

Issue 39, September 27, 2006

• Follow up after the MEC meeting

  If you are a medical staff leader, you may think that follow-up as a result of an MEC meeting is...

• Study: Physicians often fail to give medication instructions

  Physicians frequently failed to communicate specific instructions to patients about newly...

Issue 38, September 20, 2006

• Use a consent agenda for an effective MEC meeting

  A consent agenda is a tool that can be used to save meeting time and to help assure that committee...

• Lessons of Hurricane Rita

  Continuing to provide medical care for critically ill and displaced patients during a disaster...

Issue 37, September 13, 2006

• Preparing for the MEC meeting

  We are going to spend the next few issues of MS Leader Connection discussing the topic of how to...

• Study: Quality reporting programs a burden on hospital resources

  Quality reporting programs such as those mandated by the JCAHO and CMS play "complementary roles in...

Issue 36, September 6, 2006

• Running a great MEC meeting

  Have you ever been to a meeting of the Medical Executive Committee (MEC) that was too long?

• NEJM: Primary care in crisis

  Primary care is facing "a confluence of factors that could spell disaster," including inadequate...

Issue 35, August 29, 2006

• Managing polarities in medical staff culture

  Arguably, culture drives behavior and behavior drives results. Therefore, to achieve a truly...

• Study: Inconsistencies in AMA Masterfile

  There are large differences in the number and distribution of physicians identified as pediatric...

Issue 34, August 23, 2006

• Preparing new physician leaders for their roles

  Assuming a leadership position has its burdens, as anyone involved heavily in medical staff affairs...

• Study: Physicians lack basic knowledge of EMTALA

  Pediatric physicians at a children's hospital in Denver lack knowledge of basic requirements of the...

Issue 33, August 15, 2006

• Stark law myths, part 2

  What is important to understand about Stark is that it does not eliminate opportunities for...

• Does pay for performance improve quality?

  Few empirical studies of explicit financial incentives for quality exist, and more research is...

Issue 32, August 8, 2006

• Stark law myths

  The Stark Amendments were created to prevent physicians from referring federally funded patients to...

• Hospitals hire mystery shoppers

  Hospitals and physician practices are increasingly hiring mystery shopping firms to check on their...

Issue 31, August 2, 2006

• Collaborative agreements for AHPs

  With the evolving roles of many of the allied health disciplines, more allied health practitioners...

• HHS expands anti-kickback safe harbors for physicians

  Physicians will be allowed to accept donations of electronic prescribing software, electronic...

Issue 30, July 25, 2006

• Impairment versus disruptive behavior

  Sometimes well-intentioned medical staff leaders limit their effectiveness by confusing disruptive...

• JAMA tightens conflict-of-interest disclosure rules

  The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) announced in its July 12 issue that authors...

Issue 29, July 18, 2006

• Explain data in feedback reports

  Because all data are biased to a certain extent, it is important to include an explanation in...

• Study: Higher ED use not caused by uninsured, immigrants

  Contrary to popular perception, higher levels of uninsured, low-income, minority, and immigrant...

Issue 28, July 11, 2006

• Creating a physician performance feedback report

  The task of creating physician feedback reports has been a challenge for years. There are no...

• Survey: Rural practitioners see palliative care needing improvement

  Fifty percent of healthcare providers in rural Colorado and Kansas believe that palliative care at...

• Editorial: Better care, not more physicians

  An analysis of physician labor inputs across regions with an academic medical center projects a...

Issue 27, July 5, 2006

• Handling conflicts of interest in peer review

  A physician peer reviewer with a potential conflict of interest is ethically obligated to disclose...

• JAMA editorial: Measure more processes to improve care

  A study of quality process measures for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) found that their...

Issue 26, June 28, 2006

• Use an effective rating system for case peer review

  Flagging individual charts for physician review is just the beginning of the interpretation...

• CDC: Ambulatory care visits up 31% from 1994 to 2004

  Americans made more than 1.1 billion visits annually to physician offices and hospital emergency...

Issue 25, June 21, 2006

• What to include in physician feedback reports

  Since there is currently no standard performance feedback report from which to work, many...

• Institute of Medicine: Emergency care at breaking point

  The nation's emergency medical system as a whole is overburdened, underfunded, highly fragmented...

Issue 24, June 13, 2006

• Deciding where to stand on ethics

  A person who believes it is important to consider the interests and concerns of other stakeholders...

• JCAHO: Benchmarks needed to promote emergency preparedness

  A new study from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has...

Issue 23, June 6, 2006

• Break down barriers between staff areas

  In the interest of recruiting good physicians for the medical staff, the hospital, and the...

• Physicians in high-intensity regions less satisfied

  Physicians in regions with high-intensity medical care (i.e., a higher number of hospital beds and...

Issue 22, May 30, 2006

• Improving medical staff and hospital board relations

  In hospitals all across the country, the board of trustees is fiscally responsible for the...

• HRSA: Shortage of critical-care physicians likely by 2020

  The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) issued a report May 22 predicting that the...

Issue 21, May 23, 2006

• Automatic suspensions

  In your bylaws you should have a section that describes "automatic suspensions." An automatic...

• JCAHO delays new medical staff requirement until 2007

  The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) announced that the...

Issue 20, May 10, 2006

• What should not trigger a fair hearing?

  Last week we talked about the actions that should trigger the fair hearing and appeal due process...

• AMA refutes medical liability study

  The American Medical Association (AMA) on May 8 issued a statement to refute the "flawed analysis...

• Study: 'Frivolous' lawsuits account for 40% of claims, 16% of costs

  A study of malpractice litigation claims, published in the May 11, 2006 issue of the New England...

Issue 19, May 9, 2006

• Fair hearing triggers

  Your medical staff bylaws must specifically state the exact details as to when, by whom, and how a...

• New Hampshire law to block sale of prescription data

  The New Hampshire state Senate unanimously passed legislation May 4 to prohibit the sale of...

Issue 18, May 3, 2006

• Multi-disciplinary membership and participation in peer review

  Deciding whether to have non-physicians, such as nurses, participate in peer review is a culture...

• AMA calls for medical liability reform

  A board member of the American Medical Association (AMA) last week testified in Congress in support...

Issue 17, April 25, 2006

• Encourage reporting of problem physician behavior

  The importance of creating a reporting system that respects and protects staff members who disclose...

• Survey: During a pandemic, many healthcare workers would stay home

  More than two out of every five public healthcare workers would not show up for work during a flu...

Issue 16, April 18, 2006

• Avoid physician suits when denying privileges

  When a physician is not granted requested privileges, he or she will often threaten to sue the...

• JCAHO announces revised leadership standards review

  The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is accepting comments...

Issue 15, April 12, 2006

• Creating a culture of QI

  Dear medical staff leader: The medical executive committee (MEC) is a democratically elected...

• Study finds "ideal" physician qualities

  Patients receiving medical care value interpersonal skills and a human touch when evaluating their...

Issue 14, April 5, 2006

• Bylaws: Table of contents

  In the traditional approach to medical staff bylaws construction, the table of contents is placed...

• NCQA opens new standards to public comment

  The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) released for public comment draft standards for...

Issue 9, March 1, 2006

• JCAHO takes yet another look at its medical staff bylaws standard

  The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) made available for field...

Issue 8, February 22, 2006

• Medical staff members’ rights

  Dear medical staff leader: Members of an organization are typically granted rights as a benefit...

Issue 7, February 15, 2006

• AOIA Physician Profile Service made an official display agent

  The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) recently signed a licensing agreement with the...

Issue 4, January 25, 2006

• Cultivate communication with the medical staff

  Sometimes raising communication levels between the medical staff office and the medical staff needs...

Issue 2, January 11, 2006

• JCAHO revises telemedicine standards

  The JCAHO has introduced yet another revision of its telemedicine standards that take effect on...