The grant of a state medical license is seen by many as government endorsement of a practitioner’s competence. In most states, the requirements for licensure are fairly minimal and largely consist of evidence the practitioner actually went to medical school and engaged in at least some postgraduate clinical training. The ongoing maintenance of state medical licensure typically has limited requirements as well. Most states require doctors to undertake some amount of continuing medical education (CME), but the number of required credits varies and compliance is usually on an honor system.

Data from the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) shows that some medical specialties attract more females than males and vice versa.

The development of EMTALA compliance checklists and audit tools are important first steps for hospitals to initiate self-monitoring for compliance. Ongoing education and training is also essential. The EMTALA fact sheet in Figure 1 is distributed by the HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston, New York with initial medical staff application packets. It can also be combined with a post-test at the time of reappointment to ensure practitioners continue to be mindful of the requirements under EMTALA.

Today’s MSPs are taking on larger volumes of work and scopes of responsibility than ever before, often without seeing equivalent gains in respect and standing. It’s important to show leadership that you have goals and performance data that speak to your progress in achieving them.

Last time, we discussed the roles and responsibilities of the hospital board, the medical staff, and the hospital administration to ensure the quality of care in the organization. For clarity, this was presented as a typical hierarchical structure with distinct reporting relationships and chains of command. While the most successful organizations respect these boundaries, they also understand that true collaboration is necessary to achieve success. Instead of a rigid hierarchy, it is better to view the structure as parties working together across reporting relationships.

The Michigan Court of Appeals (the “Court”) upheld a trial court’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of a hospital, finding that privileged peer review documents are not discoverable even to the physician they concern.

How many times have you received a call from someone asking why it's taking so long to credential a medical staff applicant? Has a practitioner ever alleged that you were deliberately dragging your heels on a new associate's application? Does the following CREDENTIALING exchange resonate with you?

The medical staff services team of Meritus Medical Center.