Karen Owens Advises Hospitals on Attracting Physician Leaders to Peer Review Committees

Karen Owens Advises Hospitals on Attracting Physician Leaders to Peer Review Committees

Serving on hospital peer review committees can be time-consuming, difficult work — sometimes making it hard to attract physicians to serve. Drawing on her years of advising hospital and medical staff leadership, Karen Owens educated Hospital Peer Review readers on how to attract health care professionals to peer review committees. Karen explained that physicians may be convinced to participate in staff self-governance for many reasons, including good citizenship, a desire to lead, camaraderie, or even curiosity. Transforming staff members into leaders takes ongoing cultivation over the course of months or years. Karen encouraged hospitals to develop physician and nurse champions to provide encouragement and tools to bring their peers into committee service. Additionally, she said an efficient committee is an attractive one —having committee processes that...

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Karen Owens Advises Hospitals on Attracting Physician Leaders to Peer Review Committees

Karen Owens Clarifies How State Confidentiality Laws Affect How Peer Reviews Are Used in Court

Health care professionals should understand how state statutes affect peer review confidentiality, as Karen Owens explains in an interview with Hospital Peer Review. Understanding confidentiality parameters can help ensure protections and avoid unauthorized disclosures.  Karen highlights how many state laws allow hospitals to withhold documents generated during peer review from discovery in lawsuits. Moreover, most laws protect review participants from submitting to depositions or trial testimony. However, there are limits to this confidentiality, often including materials that may be examined outside of peer review. Other limitations may include discoverability of the dates of the review, the effect of the review and more.  Karen has deep experience in representing hospitals, surgery centers, managed care organizations, and other providers in matters of medical staff credentialing and peer review.  She also represents institutional providers in...

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