Wednesday, February 4, 2009

MS.1.20 Task Force to Meet in March

The MS.1.20 Task Force will meet in March to continue revising the standard. The Task Force has been working to determine how prescriptive the standard should be regarding Medical Staff bylaws. The Task Force has been trying to identify details that need to be placed within the bylaws in order to comply with the standard versus details that can placed in separate policy and procedure manuals and documents.

The Joint Commission (TJC) indefinitely delayed implementation of the revised version of MS.1.20 that was released in June 2007. Therefore, the 2008 version of MS.1.20 will remain in effect (Standard MS.01.01 in the 2009 manual) until a new revision is implemented.

TJC has issued the following statement on how the current standard will be addressed in surveys:

"There is an indefinite moratorium on the implementation of Element of Performance 19 of the current MS.1.20/MS.01.01.01. Therefore, the Joint Commission survey assesses whether each of the topics identified in EPs 1 through 18 are addressed in the bylaws, and whether necessary detail is addressed in either the bylaws, or rules and regulations, or policies. The survey does not assess how much of the detail is placed in rules and regulations or policies, rather than in bylaws; that decision is left to each medical staff and governing body. "

The Task Force first convened in January 2008. There are are 19 members on the MS.1.20 Task Force, including NAMSS Past-President Carol Ostermann, CPMSM, CPCS.

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