Synergy - January/February 2013 - 17

industry feature

This committee consists of six medical staff
members . The library manager, the assistant
librarian, the chief medical officer, and the
medical staff coordinator also attend the
meetings . The library manager does the
bulk of the groundwork for this meeting by
preparing various reports . The committee
meets quarterly and reviews the reports
and make recommendations to the MEC .
The medical staff office is responsible for
organizational aspects of the meeting .
An analysis of the cost for the meeting
showed a per-meeting cost of $3,181 .00
and an annual cost of $13,476 .00 (see table
A) . The committee determined that the
library manager could present the reports she
generated directly to the MEC rather than
going through an additional committee . The
time spent by the library manager would not
decrease, but time spent by other hospital
ancillary services would not have to be
expended . It is estimated that there may be
an additional amount of time expended by
the MEC, estimated to be about 10 minutes
quarterly, to review reports and approve
any budgetary items . This was felt to be
considerably less that the average of 48 hours

currently spent by the medical staff members
of the Education and Library Committee .
It was felt that it would be cost effective
to disband the Education and Library
Committee and assign its duties to the MEC .

and procedures that will be considered at
the meeting . Allow members who will not
be able to attend an opportunity to vote on
these by including a poll on the meeting
notice such as the one in Table C .

Analyzing All Medical Staff
Meetings

Benefits

This same concept used in the case
study can be applied to all medical staff
meetings . A tool, such as the one in table
B, can be used to display the results of the
analysis . By clearly documenting cost versus
effectiveness, medical staff leaders will
have the information they need in order to
determine if they are getting a good rate of
return on the investment of their time .

Know When Not to Meet
Don’t hold a meeting just because it
is on the schedule . If there is no time
to adequately prepare or if additional
information is needed regarding issues to be
discussed, reschedule the meeting . Don’t
call a special meeting if a phone call or a
mailed survey will do . When sending out
meeting notices, include a copy of policies

Although it takes a considerable amount
of time to evaluate and document the cost
versus the accomplishment of the meetings
for the entire medical staff, the end result
will be less time spent in meetings by both
physicians and facility staff . This translates
to money saved, more productive meetings
and more time to focus on functions and
processes that will result in an improvement
of the quality of patient care and safety . ■

Kathy Matzka, CPMSM, CPCS, is a speaker,
consultant and writer with more than 25 years of
experience in credentialing, privileging and
medical staff services. She holds certification by
NAMSS in both medical staff management and
provider credentialing. She worked for 13 years as
a hospital medical staff coordinator before
venturing out on her own as a consultant, writer
and speaker.

How do in-the-know MSPs
stay up-to-date on the latest
credentialing and privileging information?
With a membership to the Credentialing Resource Center (CRC)!
CRC membership includes an online resource providing you with news,
privileging criteria research, and tools to keep you ahead of the curve and
prepared to solve a wide array of medical staff services challenges.

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Synergy - January/February 2013

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