Health progress (Saint Louis, Mo.)
-
The Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 can help protect medical professionals and healthcare facilities from antitrust and defamation claims and other forms of litigation arising from the peer review process. Some hospitals may need to make major changes in their peer review activity as a result of the act. The healthcare entity, not the physicians involved in peer review, has the burden of complying with the provisions of the act. ⋯ Risk managers need to share data with quality assurance personnel, who must in turn share the information with medical staff involved with credentialing, peer review, and medical affairs management. Legal counsel will need to be familiar with the legalities of the act, as well as the hospital's peer review procedures and operations. General legal counsel should oversee coordination of hospital proceedings and assist in educating staff on the legalities of peer review.
-
Healthcare facilities today are finding themselves increasingly liable in malpractice suits if they have hired incompetent physicians or allowed them to remain on the medical staff. Thus appropriate processes for physician credentialing are important. The hospital medical staff has the authority to evaluate medical staff membership status and clinical privileges and to take disciplinary and corrective action. ⋯ If a hospital deviates from its bylaws when processing an application or granting clinical privileges, it risks a lawsuit. Congress has passed the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986-an act that not only protects patients from incompetent practitioners but also can help limit facility's risk of liability by requiring facilities and third-party payers to report any adverse actions taken against physicians. The National Practitioner Data Bank is an information clearing-house opened in September 1990 that hospitals must use to report and obtain professional information about physicians.