The medical executive committee (MEC) at Better Times Hospital has proportional representation. Many years ago (no one is sure exactly when), the MEC agreed that each of the 15 clinical departments should have at least one seat on the MEC regardless of its size. For every...
There was a time when medical staff standards seemed simpler and they were all located in one place: the Medical Staff chapter of The Joint Commission's Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals (CAMH). But things are different today. Standards that apply to the...
Let's be honest-in the past, physicians at some organizations secured access to new devices and technologies by putting pressure on the hospital CEO. "The louder they yelled, the more likely they were to get what they wanted," says Virginia Gortych-Barnes, MD, physician...
Last month, we discussed how the medical staff leadership can build bridges between themselves and the medical staff members to create more collegial, open relationships. In the final installment of this three-part series about medical staff communication, we discuss how...
When you attend conferences focused on medical staff services issues, you may come home eager to implement a new strategy or update a form, but because of the information overload, your efforts may come screeching to a halt. As you try to remember what a speaker said about peer...
My first consulting assignment involved a surgeon on a small medical staff with chronic depression. He would experience meltdowns in the middle of the night when nurses attempted to rouse him from a fitful sleep. On two occasions he slammed down the phone after being asked to...
