Chapter 9.C.1: Medical Staff Bylaws

In an unusual case, a Florida hospital went to the state legislature to settle a power struggle with its medical staff, obtaining legislation that gave the hospital unilateral power to veto actions of the medical staff.  However, the Fla. Sup. Ct. struck this down as an unconstitutional “special law,” after extensive discussion of the “privileges” it conferred to the private hospital.  Lawnwood Medical Center v. Seeger, 990 So. 2d 503 (Fla. 2008).  See http://www.law.uh.edu/Healthlaw/perspectives/2008/(AK)%20lawnwood.pdf

For discussion of the nature, status, and powers of the hospital medical staff, see William Brewbaker, Antitrust Conspiracy Doctrine and the Hospital Enterprise, 74 B.U.L. Rev. 67 (1994); James F. Blumstein, Of Doctors and Hospitals: Setting the Analytical Framework for Managing and Regulating the Relationship, 4 Ind. Health L. Rev. 209 (2007); Lawton Burns et al., History of Physician-Hospital Collaboration, in Crosson & Tollen. Discussing the increasing tensions between hospitals and their medical staffs, see John D. Blum, Beyond the Bylaws: Hospital-Physician Relationships, Economics, and Conflicting Agendas, 53 Buff. L. Rev. 459 (2005); Robert Berenson et al., Hospital-Physician Relations: Cooperation, Competition, or Separation?,26(1) Health Aff. w31 (Jan. 2006); Symposium, 26(1) Health Aff. w31 (Dec. 2006).