Why Help Change Bylaws?

The bylaws of many hospitals require “board certification” for hospital privileges and may not expressly allow alternatives to ABMS member boards. Given the clear need to have alternatives to ABMS, many hospitals will require altering the hospital bylaws and you can be an integral part of this change. Each month we receive many confirmations of new hospital systems that have already made this change so we want to show you how they have made this change and what you can do to help.

How To Change Hospital Bylaws

Start with Credentials and Medical Executive Committees:

Making changes to the hospital bylaws usually starts with the credentials and medical executive committees and ultimately may require a vote by your hospital’s Board of Trustees. These administrative committees can often be slow to act, especially if committee members are more senior “grandparents” and are not personally required to participate in MOC to maintain certification.

How to motivate committee members

Start an online petition:

One way to motivate committee members is to demonstrate the will of the medical staff by asking med staff members to sign a petition asking for acceptance of the NBOPAS as an alternative to ABMS certification. If you get a majority of your med staff to sign a petition, it may help focus the attention of your administrative committees.

Creating a petition:

There are many online petition sites, but we have found GetPosition (formally PetitionBuzz) to be a user friendly website that can be accessed from most hospital computers. The site is free unless you want to remove ads which will then cost approximately $25/month. We have included a sample petition below and the link to create a free petition with GetPetition is: https://www.getpetition.com/create

Petition Content:

Below we have outlined some content to serve as a template for your petition. In addition to the text, there are also options for a photo and a video from YouTube. You are welcome to include our logo as the photo (download logo by clicking here) and many people have found the comments from Dr. Paul Teirstein when he debated on the topic of the Maintenance Of Certification with Lois Margaret Nora, MD, JD, MBA (President and CEO of the ABMS) and Richard Baron, MD (President and CEO of ABIM). The video to the debate can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1vw2RPCd1s

Send the Petition:

After creating your petition, the site will provide you with a link to your petition that you can email to the hospital med staff. We suggest contacting your med staff office and asking them to send a message you create to the hospital staff containing a link to your hospital specific petition.  We suggest the message come from you or a small group of physicians on the med staff. Below is a sample email to the med staff:

SAMPLE MESSAGE TO YOUR HOSPITAL’S MED STAFF:

Dear XXXXX Hospital medical staff member,

To date >3,500 physicians have been certified by NBOPAS and 30 hospitals have accepted NBOPAS as an alternative to ABMS or AOA certification. Many hospitals, including XXXX Hospital, are considering accepting NBOPAS, but the process has been slow. There are challenges to overcome, including recognition of NBOPAS certification by third party payers and restrictive advertising laws in California and Texas, but NBOPAS is working to overcome these challenges. For NBOPAS to succeed it must continue to grow the number of NBOPAS diplomats and the number of hospitals that accept NBOPAS as an alternative to ABMS or AOA. It is important for the XXXX credentials committee, medical executive committee and board of trustees to hear the voice of the medical staff on this issue. Please make your voice heard by signing one of the two petitions below. We have created two petitions, one for supporting changes to the hospital bylaws, and one against the changes. It is important to have two petitions because many physicians will not read this email or will not take the time to respond. We need to document the number of medical staff who sign in favor of the petition as well as the number who sign against the petition.

 

Link to petition you create asking the XXX hospital to accept the NBOPAS (National Board of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons) certification as an alternative to ABMS (American Board of Medical Specialties) or AOA (American Osteopathic Association) certification for hospital privileges.

TEXT OF PETITION FOUND ON THE ABOVE LINK:

 

XXXX Hospital Should Accept NBOPAS certification as an Alternative to ABMS or AOA certification for Hospital Privileges

 

Many ABMS and AOA member boards have created Maintenance of Certification (MOC) requirements which require significant time and expense and have no proven value. For many physicians on the XXXX Hospital medical staff, participation in MOC activities is required to maintain board certification and board certification is required to maintain hospital privileges.  A new certifying organization, the National Board of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons (NBOPAS.org.) was created to provide an alternative to ABMS and AOA certification. NBOPAS certification requires initial certification by an ABMS or AOA member board, but uses accredited CME instead of MOC as the primary measure of continuing certification. Accredited CME is a meaningful educational activity that can be tailored to an individual physician’s practice.

Criteria for NBOPAS certification:

– Previous certification by an ABMS or AOA member board

– Valid license to practice medicine

– At least 50 hours of ACCME accredited CME within the past 24 months

– For selected specialties, active hospital privileges in that specialty

– Clinical privileges in certified specialty have not been permanently revoked

Whereas,

1) There is no scientific data linking ABMS or AOA MOC activities with improved patient care.

2) Via either personal experience with MOC or the experience of our colleagues we believe ABMS and AOA MOC activities are unreasonably complex, have questionable value, and detract from more worthwhile pursuits, including patient care and other educational activities.

3) NBOPAS is an alternative certifying organization that requires initial certification by an ABMS or AOA member board but uses accredited CME as the primary measure of continued certification.

4) Certification by the NBOPAS is a more meaningful alternative to ABMS or AOA.

Therefore,

The undersigned call on the credentials committees, medical executive committee and Board of Trustees of the XXX Hospital to accept NBOPAS certification as an alternative to ABMS and AOA member board certification for hospital privileges.

If you support this petition, please send it to your colleagues on the hospital medical staff office for distribution.

THIS PETITION SHOULD ONLY BE SIGNED BY A MEMBER OF THE XXXX HOSPITAL MEDICAL STAFF AND SHOULD ONLY BE SIGNED ONCE.

Sincerely,

XXXXX

 

LINK TO PETITION YOU CREATED ASKING XXX HOSPITAL NOT TO ACCEPT THE NBOPAS (National Board of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons) certification as an alternative to ABMS (American Board of Medical Specialties) or AOA (American Osteopathic Association) certification.

TEXT OF PETITION FOUND ON THE ABOVE LINK:

 

XXXX Hospital Should NOT Accept NBOPAS certification as an Alternative to ABMS or AOA certification for Hospital Privileges.

The undersigned does not support the current initiative to convince the XXXX Hospital to accept NBOPAS certification as an alternative to ABMS or AOA member board certification for hospital privileges.

If you support this petition, please send it to your colleagues on the hospital medical staff office for distribution.

THIS PETITION SHOULD ONLY BE SIGNED BY A MEMBER OF THE XXXX HOSPITAL MEDICAL STAFF AND SHOULD ONLY BE SIGNED ONCE

Sincerely,

XXXXX