Do your bylaws reflect what you are doing?

Although it seems like the better option from a bookkeeping standpoint, revising all of your bylaws at once can cause an uproar and pushback from the medical staff. This is for two reasons:

• It is too much information for busy medical staff members to read and digest, so they won't read any of it
• It will likely be viewed by the medical staff as administration trying to make sweeping changes and take away their rights

"I recommend chunks at a time," says Christine Hearst, CPMSM, become the director of medical staff services of Mission/Mission Laguna Beach/CHOC Children's Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California. "It is better digested by medical staff. It scares them [when it is the whole document], and it is too much to read and understand."

For organizations that want a complete review on a regular basis, Sandra DiVarco, BSN, RN, JD, an attorney with McDermott Will & Emery, LLP, in Chicago recommends writing the review into the bylaws or a policy. "If you have it built into your process, it is less threatening to the medical staff because it is simply part of the process."

She also advises organizations who take the section-by-section approach to be mindful of how different sections of the bylaws could be affected by a change. For example, are investigations and disciplinary processes addressed in separate sections of the bylaws? If you change your section on investigation, this could affect your section on disciplinary process, and you will then need to review the disciplinary process for consistency. "You don't want to have inconsistencies that you have to explain when you are in crisis mode in court," says DiVarco.

 Source: Medical Staff Briefing