s.
38(1) of The Manitoba Medical Act provides
for the establishment of a Standards Committee which is responsible
for supervision of the practice of medicine by members of the
college. This includes medical audit or peer review,
multidisciplinary care audits, hospital reviews, and are considered
primarily educational in nature. To ensure
confidentiality, proceedings of approved standards committees are
protected under
s. 9 of
The Manitoba Evidence Act. This provision
makes the committee's deliberations non-compellable in any
court. These audits are not disciplinary, but are
intended to assure that standards of medical practice are being
enhanced and maintained.
Audits are
conducted in hospitals through the standards committee in each
hospital, an area standards committee*, through the Standards
Committee of the College, or through a subcommittee
thereof. The latter includes on?site hospital audits by
visiting teams, reviews by the Maternal and Perinatal Health
Standards Committee, or Child Health Standards
Committee. The Standards Committee may also carry out a
medical audit of a physician's office practice, and inspects and
approves non-hospital medical/surgical facilities.
All hospitals
or RHAs should have a process in place which addresses discipline
and complaints. This process is a part of Medical Staff
By-Laws and the Rules and Regulations under those
By-Laws. This must be entirely separate from the
standards review process.
* Area standards committees are rural regional standards
committees which provide an educational peer review and standards
process for all hospitals within a specified region.
