Are medical staff departments required? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation (CoP), The Joint Commission (TJC), the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program, DNV GL Healthcare, and the Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality...
Over time, it has become common for many medical staff governance decisions to set precedents for the future. Although not required by any regulatory, licensing, or accreditation body, these decisions have become de facto truths for many medical staffs around the country. For this reason,...
Hospital mergers and acquisitions continue in response to the evolving regulatory environment in the healthcare industry. National healthcare policy is driving the urge to merge across the healthcare sector. While decreasing reimbursements for traditional fee-for-service care from...
A new survey revealed that the number of physicians who self-report telemedicine as a skill has increased by approximately 20% per year from 2015 to 2018. This increase is in line with current growth in telemedicine use; the number of patient telehealth visits has increased annually by 261%...
While the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is the most prevalent certifying body, recent developments in physician certification have increased interest in other available options. This summary points out some of the aforementioned developments, the latest certifying entity to arrive...
Patient misidentification is an underreported problem that still plagues healthcare. Despite electronic records, bar codes, and checklists, many patients end up getting the wrong procedure, medicine, care, or diagnosis.
Brad Truax, MD, is board-certified in both neurology...
Physicians, did you know that you can hack your way to faster and better sleep? The best part is that it’s through music. A certain type of music, called binaural beats, can alter the brain’s frequency of delta wave production, which are the brain waves that enable a person to fall asleep. For...
With flu season upon us, now is the time for hospitals and other healthcare facilities to consider implementing a mandatory vaccination program for seasonal influenza. Some employees may initially object, but most experts agree that flu shots are a necessity for healthcare workers. Many...
The country is in the middle of an opioid epidemic—that fact is indisputable. However, it’s much less clear who is responsible for creating the crisis and how we can all work to overcome it. To better understand where the crisis came from and where it could be going, perhaps it’s best to look at...
Bylaws should be carefully written to ensure that they can’t be changed casually, but also that amendments don’t face an unreasonable hurdle. This balancing act will be decided differently by various medical staffs.
However the medical staff authorizes amendments to its bylaws, changes...
