Review your bylaws often

Your organization should assess bylaws on an annual basis and whenever a regulatory body introduces a new standard or makes changes to an existing standard. However, a thorough assessment of your bylaws can occur less frequently.

For example, some medical staffs automatically conduct a comprehensive bylaws document review every three to five years. Others undertake this task only when they decide it is necessary to take a rigorous look at, and possibly redesign, the medical staff structure and processes to ensure that they perform efficiently and effectively. This type of medical staff redesign would provide a great opportunity to review these documents.

Do not allow more than three to five years between thorough bylaws assessments. Unfortunately, too many medical staff bylaws documents resemble archaeological finds. Every year the number of pages in the document grows as essential new additions are layered on top of old and often unnecessary provisions. Many times, a casual read-through of the bylaws results in the identification of medical staff “fixes” that were inserted to address a problem that last surfaced more than 10 years ago.