Re: Model Wellness Committee Bylaw
Joint Commission Standard MS 2.6.

We are pleased to provide you with the enclosed model bylaw amendment, which you can adapt to help your facility meet the JCAHO requirement for hospital wellness committees. The JCAHO informed us last year that, although they were requiring hospitals to create a physicians wellness program, they would accept as an alternative a referral process with the Tennessee Medical Foundation’s Physicians Health Program. Thus, as long as a hospital refers impaired physicians to the TMF PHP and monitors their progress in the program, they will be considered in compliance with Standard MS 2.6.

Many hospitals already have wellness committees in place. This model bylaw may be used for reference purposes in helping to ensure compliance with the Standard. The TMF, along with the Tennessee Hospital Association and the Tennessee Medical Association’s Organized Medical Staff Section intend the bylaw to be a resource for hospital medical staffs to address the Standard. TMF, THA, and TMA believe it may be helpful to some medical staffs to have these Model Bylaws as a reference when existing bylaws are amended or new ones developed.

On behalf of all three organizations, I thank you for your interest in helping impaired physicians to gain recovery and be rehabilitated successfully back to productive patient care work. If you have questions, please call Michael Todd at the TMF (615-467-6411), Yarnell Beatty at the TMA (615-385-2100), or Betsy Wood at the THA (615-256-8240).

Very truly yours,

David G. Gerkin, M.D.
TMF President

Craig Becker
THA President

Stuart Polly, M.D., Chairman
TMA Organized Medical Staff Section