• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Online Privilege Portals

Credentialing Resource Center Connection, January 31, 2008

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Credentialing Resource Center Connection!

Anne Roberts, CPMSM, CPCS, is the director of medical affairs at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, where she oversees the medical administration, graduate medical education, and medical staff services departments.

Dear credentialing colleague:

As a part of best practice related to credentialing and privileging, hospitals implement different mechanisms to ensure that their departments are able to identify what privileges practitioners have permission to perform within their organization.

In prior years, hospitals would create thick binders with copies of all credentialed practitioners' privileges. These binders were then kept at the nursing stations throughout the hospital. It was a huge challenge for large organizations to maintain these binders because practitioners' privileges are constantly changing.

A lot of credentialing databases now offer online privilege portals. This allows the medical staff office to allow specific access to departments in the hospital to view specific information. Because the data is extracted directly from the credentialing database, it is up to date and easy to access. There are also security features that allow the database administrator to grant access as he or she deems appropriate. Below are some examples of areas within the organization that can benefit from an online privilege portal:

• Clinical staff: View-only rights to practitioner's photos, privileges, and preferred method of contact.
• Department that issues badges: View-only rights to practitioner photos, personal identifier (i.e., the last four digits of social security number or date of birth), and confirmation that the organization has granted the practitioner privileges prior to issuing his or her badge
• Information systems: View-only rights to personal identifier and confirmation that the organization has granted the practitioner privileges prior to issuing a log-in
• Admitting: Confirmation that an attending has privileges prior to registering a patient
• Operating room scheduling: Confirmation that an attending has current privileges prior to scheduling cases
• Pharmacy: Access to view a read-only scanned image of the practitioner's signature along with his or her Drug Enforcement Agency schedules

These are just some examples of how an online privilege portal can benefit organizations internally. Ensuring that the security features are well tested is essential prior to implementation, as is clear communication to all staff members who will have access to the information. As medical staff services departments are generally considered the source for physician information, maintaining current, up-to-date, and accurate records is imperative to ensuring that the portal is beneficial.

Remember, clear, effective communication is the key to success!

That's all for this week.

All the best,

Anne Roberts, CPMSM, CPCS

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Credentialing Resource Center Connection!

• Comment
• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive

Comments