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How to primary source verify education for licensed independent practitioners

Credentialing Resource Center Connection, May 29, 2008

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Sally J. Pelletier, CPMSM, CPCS, is a consultant with The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro, Inc., specializing in the areas of credentialing and privileging.

Dear credentialing colleague:

If you are working in a Joint Commission-accredited (formerly JCAHO) organization, you should be familiar with the section of its Web site that addresses FAQs from the field. We’ve highlighted this section of the Web site before in the Credentialing and Privileging Advisor; in Anne Roberts’ April 11 column, “Joint Commission clarification regarding core privileges,” she referenced an FAQ by The Joint Commission related to core/bundled privileges.

These FAQs tackle challenges that many organizations face and provide guidance on the interpretation of the accreditor’s standards. Although you may tend to focus on topics related to medical staff standards, it is beneficial to browse new postings related to other topics as well, because there may be information worth sharing with others in your organization.

In January of 2008, The Joint Commission posted another FAQ related to primary source verification of education.  (Click here to read “Primary Source Verification of Education for Licensed Independent Practitioners”)

In essence, The Joint Commission is saying (taking into account issues such as the date of the education, name, reputation, and location of the educational organization) primary source verification of licensure can suffice as verification of the education that was required for the LIP to obtain the license. It is up to each organization to define their own standards for credentialing. Medical Staff Leaders, through the credentials committee and/or the medical executive committee, need to decide whether this is a verification methodology that it wants to adopt. When making this decision, they should consider whether this method of verification for education is sufficient to meet the internal standards it wants to establish.

Remember, credentialing has no other master than the patient.

That’s all for this week.

All the best,

Sally J. Pelletier, CPMSM, CPCS
http://www.greeley.com/consulting.cfm

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