QUESTION: “It’s been a long time since we first adopted our bylaws. Some leaders are hoping for a clean slate with a total rewrite, others want to continue to tweak the bylaws we have. What’s the best approach?”
ANSWER: There is no single right answer to this question but it is a question we get quite a bit. We have found that if you have done a major revision of your bylaws documents (including your related credentialing, peer review, health and professionalism policies) within the last five years or so, you should be able to tweak the existing documents to reflect any changes in the law and recommended best practices.
Even if it’s been ten years or so since you totally revised your bylaws, you can probably stick with the current documents. There are a couple of critical qualifications. First, it’s important that you are starting with an excellent set of bylaws. This means that the bylaws you have in place are easy to read and follow, the bylaws do not contain lots of internal cross-references (these are almost impossible to keep up-to-date), and the bylaws reflect best practices. And second, it’s also important that you have been careful, thorough, and diligent in updating the bylaws every two years or so. In our experience, updating a mediocre set of bylaws only takes you from a bad situation to one that is worse.
If it’s been more than ten years since you’ve done a major overhaul of your bylaws, it’s time to do so. Just about everything has changed in the medical staff world in the last decade. Whether it’s the role of APPs, the use of telemedicine, the need for consistency between and among sister hospitals, the focus on collegial efforts and progressive steps in the peer review process, or the non-punitive approach to dealing with health issues, the list of issues that have substantially changed is almost endless.
It’s so important to have modern, up-to-date bylaws, and related policies, to reflect the world in which you are practicing and to provide the necessary tools to solve the challenges you are likely to face. A major overhaul of your bylaws documents might seem like a daunting task, but we can assure you the time you devote to the project on the front end, will be time well spent. And you and your colleagues will reap the rewards for many years to come.
For more information on developing BFB (aka Best Friend Bylaws), join us live for The Complete Course for Medical Staff Leaders in Disney (September 19-21), Phoenix (November 18-20), Naples (January 27-29) or New Orleans (April 7-9).