Strategies for eliminating unfairness in peer review.

Physicians often find themselves the victims of uninformed peer review practices whereby hospital boards make decisions regarding medical staff privileges without adequately evaluating the charges and without affording physicians the appropriate due process protections. In addition to damaging a physician's reputation, such unfair review practices can lead to liability exposure and expensive and prolonged litigation. This article describes how medical staff physicians and hospital board members can avoid these problems by taking an active and informed role in the peer review process.