Week 4 HAS 515
 Determine the importance of a thorough understanding of the legal liability of health care institutions from the Chief Medical Officer’s viewpoint. When you come across a legal issue that you do not understand, describe what your action steps might be.

The CMO is a clinician and has clinical credibility and understand the practice of medicine. The CMO also has formal training in business, management, and leadership. Understanding the practice of medicine is critical, but the CMO must also understand the business of medicine both from a private practice as well as an academic perspective, depending on the setting. Credibility is required not only in the medical staff lounge, but also in the C-suite and the boardroom. The effective CMO is able to bridge the chasm between cost and quality because they understand both sides of the equation and know that, like a balance sheet, assets must equal liabilities. Neither a management degree nor a business degree alone is sufficient; real-world experience in healthcare organizations is essential. Specific skills are that the CMO must be able to credibly present and administer the agenda of quality to the governing body while supporting an economically viable budget, as well as the organization's strategic plan and legal policies and procedures( Cors,2009).

If I come across legal issues that I don’t understand I will involve risk management department and review all documents needed such : Incident identification and reporting, Methods of identifying and addressing potential tort claims, including the sequestering of medical records, and the investigation of medical accidents and near accidents. Review of patient complaints concerning quality of care issues. Review and documentation of sentinel events using a root cause analysis or other recognized method. Review of requests for medical records from