In today’s physician source, I will provide an update as to our progress with creation of system bylaws for ThedaCare.
We had our first system-wide meeting to kick off our work with Greeley on May 7th. There were physician representatives from the medical staff of every hospital as well as representatives from ThedaCare’s Medical Staff Services, Legal, Regulatory and Compliance departments. With the help from our Greeley physician leader (who has assisted in the development of hundreds of system bylaws across the country), we reviewed our 6 sets of current bylaws and then compared what was similar and what was different. We had great discussion from the team and reached unanimous decisions on the vast majority of decision points. For those decisions where further conversation is warranted, we will readdress when we come together again on June 15th.
Not only will this initiative consolidate our 6 sets of Bylaws into one unified document, it will lessen the burden on physicians and staff by simplifying many aspects of medical staff membership. For those that practice at multiple sites within ThedaCare, we will be able to move towards a system approach to credentialing while still retaining privileging at each site. The new bylaws outline a process to make all applicants members at all sites when they apply to ThedaCare and if they ever wish to practice at additional sites, it will simply be a matter of privileging rather than repeating the entire credentialing process. Much faster! We will also be standardizing much of the nomenclature and criteria in the bylaws so that physicians are not held to multiple different standards.
After our June 15th meeting, we will be reviewing the document at MEC, medical staff meetings, and sharing with medical staffs across ThedaCare. Greeley has also offered to assist in “Town Hall Meetings” for our physicians to ask the experts any questions that they may have.
In closing, I wish to especially thank the physicians and leaders in ThedaCare that are helping to drive this work forward. Although we did work indoors for 8+ hours on a beautiful Saturday (Mother’s Day weekend to boot!), this team is creating a document of which we can all be proud and will live well beyond our time practicing in ThedaCare hospitals.
Michael Hooker, DO
VP and CMO Acute Care – ThedaCare
