The importance of creating user-friendly bylaws

Despite hospitals’ best attempts, medical staff bylaws are rarely user-friendly documents. Hospitals nationwide spend significant sums of money, devote countless hours of physicians’ time, and employ numerous attorneys and consultants in an attempt to perfect, refine, and improve their bylaws. Still, bylaws often are overrun with complex terms, definitions, and jargon that have little to do with the provision of quality patient care. For many physicians and medical staff leaders, the mere word “bylaws” conjures images of bureaucracy. Many medical staff bylaws resemble archaeological documents. They were written in the distant past and are only occasionally dusted off and modified.

When written well, bylaws and associated policies are user-friendly documents that clearly define the purpose of the medical staff, promote good citizenship by specifying the obligations and duties of medical staff members, enhance quality of care through excellent credentialing and performance improvement processes, and reinforce appropriate professional conduct by setting unequivocal expectations for appropriate behavior.

Medical staff bylaws also have legal implications for physicians and hospitals. If these governing documents are not followed meticulously, or if they contain ambiguous or sloppy language, disputes can eventually turn into lawsuits. Additionally, the bylaws must address how numerous and sundry accreditation and regulatory requirements of a medical staff are addressed at the organization. In essence, medical staff bylaws must address four distinct areas. These are:

1. Medical staff governance
2. Due process
3. Credentialing and privileging procedures
4. Organization and functions

Source: The Medical Staff Leader's Survival Guide