Medical Staff Governance

BMD regularly provides hospitals, health care institutions, medical executive committees and medical staff associations with counsel on a broad range of medical staff matters. BMD attorneys are known for their broad experience guiding hospital medical staffs and for their significant knowledge on questions dealing with medical staff organization, governance and leadership, bylaws, rules, and policy development, peer review, investigations and formal hearings, appellate reviews, dealing with disruptive practitioner behavior, allied health professionals, and meeting and maintaining standards of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”), The Joint Commission (“TJC”), Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (“HFAP”) and Det Norske Veritas Healthcare, Inc. (“DNV”). We also have extensive experience drafting and updating medical staff governing documents, including Medical Staff Bylaws and Rules and Regulations.

BMD’s intimate knowledge of medical staff roles and challenges, as well as physician advocacy, has positioned us to provide the necessary guidance for medical group employment, physician contracting, accountable care organizations, physician practice in ambulatory care settings, and numerous other new practice arrangements. In assisting provider groups to create employment relationships or other contracting models, we draw upon our decades of close, collegian working relationships with physicians and hospitals, alike.

Additionally, the multifaceted hospital-medical staff relationship gives rise to an array of legal issues, including: hospital-medical staff integration; quality assessment, performance improvement, and peer review; medical staff and allied health professional governing documents; and general patient care. The recent trend toward increased hospital employment of physicians has resulted in new administrative and legal challenges for these hospitals. BMD has the experience and stands ready to assist our clients with these complex issues.