Revisions to the Joint Commission’s medical staff bylaws standard focus on strengthening medical staff autonomy, collaboration with hospital governing bodies, and patient safety and quality of care.
The Joint Commission has updated medical standard MS 01.01.01, which was formerly MS 1.20. The new standard must be implemented by hospital medical staffs by March 31, 2011. Read an FAQ from the Joint Commission on MS 01.01.01.
The standard establishes a framework for medical staff bylaws. Individual medical staff bylaws committees must then fill in the details, such as who can have privileges at the hospital and who votes on rules and regulations.
“My medical staff bylaws may be different than another, but basically the standard outlines what each medical staff must determine,” said Pennsylvania Medical Society President James Goodyear, MD.
Dr. Goodyear was a representative of the American Medical Association on the committee that revised the standard.
The new standard is an improvement because it is more well-defined than the old standard, Dr. Goodyear said.
“There was a lot of confusion and dysfunctional, disruptive interaction between the organized medical staff and the governing body. That really did not create a collaborative culture for providing patient safety and quality of care,” he said.
Physicians who do not serve on the bylaws committee may not notice a difference when the new bylaws are in place, but they will enjoy new protections, such as responsibility for clinical decisions and the right to a fair hearing and due process in the case of a disciplinary matter..
“We don’t want to be dictated to by governing boards and administrators, nor do we want them to interpose their will and demands in the patient-physician relationship. Our protection is within the medical staff bylaws,” Dr. Goodyear said.
The AMA also offers principles to strengthen the physician-hospital relationship.