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Primary source verification of education for licensed independent practitioners

Credentialing & Verification Update, February 13, 2008

The Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO) recently posted a new hospital standard FAQ on its web site. The question and answer follows:

Primary source verification of education for licensed independent practitioners

Q: When credentialing licensed independent practitioners, can verification of current licensure suffice for verification of education in lieu of performing primary source verification of the education since a defined level of education is required to receive the license (e.g., a medical license requires completion of medical school, a dental license requires completion of dental school, a podiatric license requires completion of podiatric school, etc.)?

A: The issues that can relate to verification vary and include but are not limited to:

• the date of the education
• the name of the educational institution and its reputation
• the location of the educational institution

If the date of the education is important to know to determine how the practitioner has kept current with changes in the field, then primary source verification would be required. For example, if the education was at some time in the distant past (e.g., 20 or 30 years, then additional information on subsequent training might need to be obtained before granting privileges or assigning job responsibilities.

If it is important to the organization to be able to market the educational status of their practitioners (e.g., having graduates of specific institutions), then primary source verification would be required.

If it is important to know the location of the school (e.g., US vs. foreign) to determine if there could be a difference in level of the education or possible language barrier issues that need to be considered, then primary source verification would be required.

If none of these issues is of importance, then verification of licensure alone could suffice of evidence that the individual had completed the requisite education. In addition, there may be an occasion when the educational institution is no longer in existence and the information does not appear on the AMA profile or ECFMG. In those instances, verification of licensure would suffice since the licensing board would have had to verify the education before granting the license
 
Source: www.jointcommission.org

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