AMA HOLDS WITH DOCS HOSPITAL BOARD'S POLICY CAUSING CONSTERNATION FOR STAFF.Byline: Grace Lee Staff WriterThe American Medical Association's policy board on Tuesday backed area doctors in their legal fight with management at Ventura's Community Memorial Hospital - a fight that could set a precedent for patient-care issues nationwide. The vote, taken at the AMA's meeting in Chicago, gives the AMA's backing - and possibly dollars - to doctors on staff who filed suit against Community Memorial in April. The suit claims the medical center violated state laws requiring medical staff self-governance by adopting new policies without consulting them. The hospital's board of directors put in place a conflict-of-interest policy that prohibits any doctor with a competing financial interest from voting as a staff member or serving as a staff officer. ``We suspect there's a move on the part of (hospital administrators) to assert more dominion over medical staff,'' said Gerald Schiff, a California representative to the AMA (Automatic Message Accounting) The recording and reporting of telephone calls within a telephone system. It includes the calling and called parties and start and stop times of the call. who chairs the committee on doctor-administration relations. Dr. Michael Sexton Michael Sexton (born March 5, 1971) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Carlton Blues between 1990 and 2000. A defender, Sexton was an All Australian in both 1996 and 1997. Michael Sexton is member of the AFL "Laws of the Game" or Rules Committee. , chairman of the California Medical Association board of trustees board of trustees Politics The posse of thugs who oversee an institution's administration. See Board of directors. , said that the new policy jeopardizes not only the autonomy of doctors but ultimately their right to a final say in the care of their patients. ``You don't want the person defining quality care in the hospital to be the person responsible for the bottom line of finances,'' Sexton sex·ton n. An employee or officer of a church who is responsible for the care and upkeep of church property and sometimes for ringing bells and digging graves. said. CMA CMA - Concert Multithread Architecture from DEC. , which describes the lawsuit on its Web site as one that ``may become the most important lawsuit in the history of California See History of California to 1899 or History of California 1900 to present. medical staffs,'' has already committed its support for the physicians, raising money for legal fees against the medical center. Lowell Brown, one of the attorneys representing the hospital, said the common sense of a conflict-of-interest policy is ``as clear as day to anyone who thinks about it.'' He said it was reasonable to expect that doctors who have competing surgical centers would not hold leadership positions in the hospital that would give them access to sensitive financial information. Nor, he added, are doctors the only ones who have an ethical responsibility to patients. ``This is a not-for-profit hospital with a charitable mission,'' he said. Peter Goldenring, another attorney representing the hospital, has said the hospital conflict stems from a small group of doctors motivated by financial gain. Dr. Brian Branter, a member of the hospital staff for 22 years, said administrators revoked his staff privileges staff privileges Admitting privileges The rights that a health professional has as a member of a hospital's medical staff, which includes hospitalization of private Pts, participation in committees, and in decisions relevant to the hospital's future. after he said he needed more time to review the new bylaws The rules and regulations enacted by an association or a corporation to provide a framework for its operation and management. Bylaws may specify the qualifications, rights, and liabilities of membership, and the powers, duties, and grounds for the dissolution of an . He alleges that the bylaws were retaliation RETALIATION. The act by which a nation or individual treats another in the same manner that the latter has treated them. For example, if a nation should lay a very heavy tariff on American goods, the United States would be justified in return in laying heavy duties on the manufactures and against outspoken doctors who had criticized the administration and were voted to staff leadership positions. Doctors needed to be independent from administrators because, he argued, they had an obligation to deliver patient care regardless of the profit margin. In addition, he said, doctors had to be autonomous to act as watchdogs for patients. A Ventura County Superior Court judge, while deliberating on his ruling, ordered that Branter be allowed to perform surgeries at the hospital. He also ordered Branter to agree to the new bylaws until he made his ruling. Schiff said that the battle has the potential to affect patients even before a ruling is rendered. ``On the simplest level, if you're a patient in a hospital, open warfare between the hospital and doctors is bad,'' he said. It's not necessarily bad for competing hospitals, however. The president of St. John's Regional Medical Center St. John's Regional Medical Center may refer to: In the United States:
Michael Murray Michael Murray may refer to several people:
Grace Lee, (805) 662-6757 grace.lee(at)dailynews.com |
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