1

Legal and Ethical Issues in HCA

Medical Staff Organization and Committee Structure

Name

Institution

Course

Professor

Date
 2

Legal and Ethical Issues in HCA

Medical Staff Organization and Committee Structure

Healthcare organizations are independent legal entities with their own organizational and committee

structure that is crucial in determining the quality of services and care provided at the organization. The

organized medical staff ensures a smooth flow of duties and responsibilities within the facility (Eisenberg,

2003). The various committees in the medical setting have a role in monitoring, analyzing, and suggesting

measures for improvement in providing healthcare. This essay describes members of those committees and the

roles played in maintaining the smooth running of the organization.

1. The Executive Committee is the highest level and acts on behalf of the governing body. It is responsible

for drafting guidelines in the facility, such as creating organization structure, staffing, determining staff

privileges, assessing performance, hearing procedures, and discontinuing medical staff membership.

This level comprises the chief of staff, medical staff officers, and departmental chairs.

2. Bylaws Committee. This committee ensures that rules and regulations are adhered to and are up-to-date.

It also establishes the various staff categories and privileges associated with each department.

3. The blood and Transfusion Committee oversees blood-related issues, that is, monitoring the utilization

of blood, and blood requirements, ordering more blood, and assessing blood transfusion results and

reactions.

4. The Credentials Committee is responsible for receiving and analyzing applications from medical

applicants, requests for privileges, and recruitments to the medical staff.

5. The pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee oversees all processes and procedures relating to medicines,

from procurement, use of drugs, experiments and safety measures.

6. Other committees include Infection Control, Medical Records, Utilization review, and Tissue and

Quality Improvement Committees. All these committees report to the executive committee. It also

carries the power to delegate more duties to other committees per requirements.

Privileging credentialing of medical staff personnel is a process carried out to analyze the competency of

healthcare providers in administering care to patients to authorize them to carry out medical duties. This

process involves the provision of documents to show completion of the required level of education and training,
 3

analyzing qualifications, and assessing one's knowledge and skills (Faulx et al., 2017). Obtaining medical staff

privileges, physicians must fulfill the requirements outlined in the organization's bylaws. The privileging and

credentialing process starts with an application, signing a statement to confirm an understanding of bylaws, and

evaluating mental stability. The applicant is then required to provide an insurance certificate and professional

license. Once the applicant has provided all requirements, they undergo an interview to close the process.

Successful applicants get clinical privileges.

To sum up, every aspect of healthcare organization plays a vital role in quality care. The privileging and

credentialing process is a precautionary measure to avoid having poorly qualified physicians in healthcare

facilities which can endanger patients. This process should be encouraged, with strict scrutiny ascertaining that

no medical staff presents fake certificates and licensures.

 4

References

Eisenberg, G. M. (2003). The medical staff structure-Its role in the 21st century. Annals Health L., 12, 249.

Faulx, A. L., Lightdale, J. R., Acosta, R. D., Agrawal, D., Bruining, D. H., Chandrasekhara, V., ... & DeWitt, J.

M. (2017). Guidelines for privileging, credentialing, and proctoring to perform GI

endoscopy. Gastrointestinal endoscopy, 85(2), 273-281.

Pozgar, G. D. (2019). Legal and ethical issues for health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Learning.