"Health & Medical News"

Physicians say a Missouri Supreme Court ruling, though narrow, recognizes the significance of medical staff bylaws and offers doctors some recourse in the face of unfair discipline.

Breaking with a 43-year-old precedent, a unanimous high court opened the door for medical staff members to sue hospitals over privileging disputes if the facilities fail to follow staff bylaws. Justices departed from a long-held principle that hospital privileging decisions were not subject to judicial review, noting that was the “nationwide majority rule” at the time of the high court’s 1965 decision.

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Before joining the medical staff at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pierce, Fla., pathologist Anil G. Desai, MD, spent two years sitting in on meetings to learn what goes into the bylaws that he says ultimately safeguard patient care.

“The capability, the knowledge and the expertise is with the physicians,” said Dr. Desai, who serves on Lawnwood’s medical executive committee and has been a medical staff member since 2001. The bylaws “are the only way you can take care of patient care independently. Who will be the advocate of the patient if the medical staff is not there?”

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