A practitioner practicing outside the scope of privileges indicates an immediate threat to patient health and safety as determined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other organizations. Therefore, it is important for everyone in your organization to know who has what privileges. This sample policy for dissemintaing privileging information will help that process.

Establishing regular lines of communication between hospital and medical staff leaders can go far in generating trust and fostering communication.

This past July, the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine unanimously passed two new rules aimed at further regulating overlapping surgeries to optimize patient safety in the operating room. As defined by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, overlapping surgery, sometimes referred to as concurrent surgery, “involves the coordination of various procedures for a single surgeon or teams of surgeons throughout the day so that preparation and procedure for one patient begins in one room as the care of another patient finishes in another room” and is “widely used at academic medical centers and community hospitals.”