QUESTION:
We’ve got a debate going on at the MEC. Does the Chief of Staff vote, not vote, or vote only when needed as a tie-breaker?
OUR ANSWER FROM HORTYSPRINGER ATTORNEY RACHEL REMALEY:
No need to debate any longer! The good news is that, for the most part, Medical Staffs and their leaders are free to conduct their meetings however they wish. You are not bound by any sort of formal parliamentary procedure (e.g. “Robert’s Rules of Order”) and, in turn, can set your own rules. So – the answer to your question is that your Chief of Staff, who chairs the MEC, can vote if your Bylaws and related Medical Staff documents say so. If the documents are silent, as a general rule, the chair decides procedural matters for the committee. Since the chair, in this case, has a bit of a conflict of interest, the committee itself may wish to weigh in and make a determination (or develop a policy/guideline for how it will conduct meetings/voting).
If you are wondering how other organizations do it, note that there is not one, “right” position on this matter. We see some Medical Staff committees that lean toward inclusivity and let all members of the committee vote, whether or not they are the chair, whether or not they are an administrator (e.g. CMO, Medical Director, Service Line Director), and whether or not they are physicians. I tend to prefer this type of organizational structuring, since I believe providing voting rights to each member of the committee honors the time and energy that they commit to the committee’s work.
We also see Medical Staff committees that only allow physician members to vote (including any chairs, employed physicians, administrators).
Finally, we sometimes see Medical Staff committees that only allow voting by specified, physician members (sometimes limited to physicians who are members of the Active Staff category).
Again, as a general rule, it is up to each organization to establish its own culture and rules regarding meetings and voting. Note, however, that you should always check with your medical staff counsel before making changes to committee membership and/or voting, since counsel can verify that any changes are consistent with the statutes and other laws in your state that exist to protect (through immunities and privileges) the peer review activities that your Medical Staff conducts through its committees. Some states have a more narrow definition of a “peer review committee” or “quality assurance committee” that requires membership to be all or mostly physicians, etc. Counsel can help to make sure you stay within the confines of applicable law and maximize your protections.