Beyond programs for individuals who are actively engaged in clinical education and training, many healthcare organizations provide observation/shadowing opportunities for high school and college students who are considering a career in the medical field. Relevant policies should address the structure for requesting an application to observe a member of an organization’s healthcare staff performing duties.

As telehealth expands and technology improves, there are an increasing number of options for communication between healthcare providers and patients as well as between providers, but such services raise concerns for HIPAA compliance due to the method of transmission and issues of security compliance.

There is no prescribed format for creating medical staff bylaws and associated documents. Laws, regulations, and accreditation standards require medical staffs to address certain issues in the bylaws. How these issues are organized and addressed, however, is up to each medical staff. Medical staffs often defer to previously published model bylaws that may not reflect contemporary needs, modern concepts, or how the medical staff actually functions. This segment will identify and explain a best practice available to medical staffs for tackling this challenge.