Medical Staff Newsletters

This monthly resource acts as a support system by providing time-saving tools, expert advice, and analyses to help you effectively manage an evolving medical staff organization.

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Medical Staff Briefing

Issue 12, December 2, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Prepare your physician leaders for a heightened role in the survey process

  The JCAHO has long expected your physicians to participate in the survey process. However, that...

• The JCAHO takes another look at hospitals' telemedicine services

  Telemedicine is not a new development. In fact, many health care experts equate sending radiology...

• Partner with the residency program to address disruptive behavior before licensu

  The Michael Swango case-the physician currently serving a life prison sentence for poisoning his...

Issue 11, November 24, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Legality of prohibiting lawyer participation in fair hearings

  Fair hearings consume hospitals' time and money, so it's no surprise when hospitals and physicians...

• Government regulations guide hospital/physician joint ventures

  Editor's note: In the October issue of MSB, we discussed the reimbursement issues that motivate...

• Strengthen the ties between physician recruitment and credentialing to ensure qu

  Your job as a dedicated medical staff services professional (MSSP) is to ensure that only qualified...

• Part two: EMTALA regulations clarified

  Editor's note: On September 9, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the...

Issue 10, October 3, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Joint ventures: Get complex partnerships off the ground

  Physicians and hospitals faced with decreasing reimbursement and increasing competition among...

• Contest or concede surveyor decisions?

  You've likely taken part in post-JCAHO survey discussions with your fellow MSSPs that included...

• New EMTALA regulations eliminate quirks in the 'patient dumping' laws

  Editor's note: On September 9, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the...

Issue 9, September 1, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Advise physicians about informed consent to reduce liability

  Informed consent is not only a legal necessity and regulatory requirement, but also an important...

• Polarity management: A new approach to health care challenges

  Changes in health care require hospitals and their medical staffs to adopt new approaches to...

• Rural facilities struggle with continuum of care

  The American College of Surgeons (ACS) faced tough criticism when it moved to ban itinerant surgery...

Issue 8, August 1, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• A look at the law: Medical staff as an independent entity

  Can your left hand sue your right hand? The New Hampshire Supreme Court said no in its June 26...

• Stark II: Business opportunities and challenges

  Stark II prohibits physicians from making certain Medicare referrals to entities with which a...

• Credentialing interviews help answer competency questions, clarify expectations

  Most hospitals' credentialing processes once included a mandatory interview for all new medical...

• Physicians relinquish privileges to avoid ED call

  Nearly every hospital struggles to secure its medical staff's commitment to providing consistent...

• Continuing Education Quiz

  Complete the quiz by writing the letter corresponding to the correct choice for each question on...

Issue 7, July 1, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Five into one: Merging management and medical staffs

  What does it take to successfully merge the medical staffs, medical executive committees (MECs...

• Leadership challenge: VPMAs see role and responsibilities evolve

  There is no doubt that the role of physician leader has evolved over the years in reaction to...

• Florida hospital allows physicians to 'go bare'

  The malpractice insurance crisis affects hospitals and physicians all over the country, but the...

• MSSPs: Changes in industry open door to new outsourcing opportunities

  Despite MSSPs' already full schedules and heavy workloads, many of these professionals find...

Issue 6, June 1, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Fair hearings and appeals cost hospitals money and time

  Fair hearings are an unavoidable reality in today's health care environment. According to a recent...

• Emerging trend: Linking credentialing processes and insurance rates

  As the malpractice insurance crisis captures the attention of health care executives and...

• Retraining resource: Hospitals and licensing boards send physicians back to scho

  You may have recently noticed an emerging trend while evaluating physicians' privilege requests at...

Issue 5, May 1, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Introduction of niche hospital leads to revocation of privileges

  The Office of Inspector General (OIG) will issue guidance on the legality of economic...

• Small-town hospital opens the door to educational opportunity

  Physician brings CME programs to peers Providing quality continuing medical education (CME...

• Keystone's model credentialing policy: Credentialing failure spurs collaboration

  When news of David Tremoglie's stint posing as a psychiatrist grabbed the media spotlight in 1997...

Issue 4, April 1, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Stark II puts financial relationships under the microscope

  The aim of Stark II legislation is fairly simple-to prevent professional medical judgment from the...

• Study correlates volume and quality

  Times have changed-as evidenced by a recent study released by the New York-based Center for Medical...

• Form letters present formative challenges

  MSSPs juggle multiple tasks under the regulatory eye of the accreditors and state and federal...

Issue 3, March 1, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Physician profiles: Link peer review to ongoing performance monitoring

  Medical staff leaders and credentialing professionals should not discard physician...

• Succession plan leads to success

  It's no secret that medical staff leaders' roles are no longer purely symbolic. The complexities of...

• Effective meetings: Simple tools can solve complex problems

  When Cathy Rupert became medical staff administration director at OSF Saint Francis...

Issue 2, February 21, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Review your peer review process: The focus on quality requires change

  Quality has been pushed to the forefront in health care over the last several years by a number of...

• Type I challengescurtailed

  JCAHO surveyors learned of big changes on the horizon at annual conferenceIn the January MSB...

• The Office of Inspector General sets its sights on a familiar issue

  The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently threw its hat into the ongoing and controversial...

Issue 1, January 1, 2003 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• JCAHO survey revised: Aninside look at the pilot process

  In the December 2002 MSB we discussed some common complaints that dissatisfied JCAHO-accredited...

• Disruptivephysicians' behavior linked to communicationproblems

  Oklahoma City-based INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center struggled with a common medical staff...

• The relationship between volume andcompetency

  When reappointing a provider to your medical staff and delineating privileges, do you consider the...

• Continuing Education Quiz

  Complete the quiz by writing the letter corresponding to the correct choice for each question on...

Issue 6, February 14, 2003

• Does patient volume improve physician competency?

  Does patient volume improve physician competency?