In this issue:

Adverse Peer Review Actions May Require Independent Investigation - A California Court of Appeals ruled in July 2008 that depending upon the circumstances, a medical staff may not rely solely on the results of peer review proceedings from another hospital when considering whether to terminate a physician's medical staff privileges.

Proposed Regulations Would Expand Health Professionals' Scope of Practice and Weaken Medical Staff Self-Governance - The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) recently proposed regulations that would expand the scope of practice of psychologists and potentially all other health care practitioners working in licensed health care facilities.

Overkill Codes of Conduct - The Joint Commission recently broadcast as a "Sentinel Event Alert" a discussion of its standard LD 3.10 (effective 2009), which calls on hospitals to establish a process for managing disruptive behavior. The Joint Commission followed up the next day with a broadcast e-mail selling its book, seminar, and audio conference on how to meet the standard it created.
'Never' Events and Their Potential Side Effects - The Hippocratic oath mandates that physicians "prescribe regimens for the good of [their] patients according to [their] ability and judgment and never do harm to anyone." Medical and professional accountability, patient safety, and quality of health care are supported by the medical profession. Unfortunately, some regulatory or legislative efforts aimed at furthering those goals have unintended and contrary consequences.

Tuesday
December 2
6 p.m.
Mission Valley Marriott

The SGH Medical Staff Holiday Celebration is just around the corner. This week we asked several members which dessert they'd like to be served. Here are the top choices. (We were limited in the polling tool to five choices so strawberry shortcake and key lime pie did not make this list.)

Are you interested in seeing a recently published issue of the E-Bulletin?