Tip of the week: Make ED call everyone’s responsibility

Rather than requiring only particular staff categories to take such call, many medical staff bylaws now have a provision that reads as follows:

"Staff members, consistent with their granted clinical privileges, must participate in the on-call coverage of the emergency department or in other hospital coverage programs as determined by the medical executive committee and the board, after receiving input from the appropriate clinical specialty."

Such language makes ED call everyone’s responsibility—and the medical executive committee (MEC) can assign that responsibility after it carefully studies the variables related to this issue at its hospital. The MEC has the ability to address the issue free from the arbitrary shackles of category assignments.

This week's tip is an excerpt from The Greeley Guide to Medical Staff Bylaws, Second Edition, by Joseph D. Cooper, MD.