Case Study: Single Physician Specialty

Situation:

• Rural hospital
• OB Service has one OB/GYN and four midwives
• Medical Staff leaders have concerns about the OB physician's management of patients but do not feel qualified to evaluate his care
• OB physician is a senior member of the staff known for his very strong personality and noncompliant behavior
• The hospital and medical staff are committed to address their concerns and seek the ongoing external peer review support and guidance of a qualified non-competitor OB physician

QMCG Team Role: Provide the ongoing availability of qualified external peer review of OB cases referred by a consistent and qualified consulting peer review physician who has been appointed as ad hoc member of the Medical Staff's QA&I Committee.

Medical Staff/Hospital Accomplishments:

• Have designed and implemented an affordable and effective peer review process for the one specialty not previously addressed by its internal systems
• Meets JCAHO performance improvement standards for this specialty with the addition of this component to their internal systems
• Have ready access to the qualified consultation of a non-competitor Board certified OB with strong communication and medical staff leadership skills who is in active practice in a rural setting when quality concerns arise requiring review and recredentialling evaluation
• Have maintained the peer review protections of the state peer review and HCQIA statutes for the hospital, medical staff and reviewing physician