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Ask the expert: Will The Joint Commission take a closer look at credentials files in the future?

Credentialing Resource Center Connection , October 23, 2008

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I asked Paul M. Schyve, MD., Senior Vice President for Joint Commission a question at the NAMSS National Conference regarding the survey for compliance with credentialing and privileging standards. I noted that MSPs pride themselves on the job they do with primary source verification and other aspects of the credentialing process. But over the past few years, there seems to be a trend for surveyors to give the credentials files a only cursory review. I noted that there is even a joke that, if you get the surveyor talking, they won’t even look at the files. I said that it did not seem that it was possible to adequately evaluate compliance without a review of an adequate sample of credentials files and that some MSP were even insulted that there was not adequate time spent in review of this critical function. His answer was that, when Joint Commission changed its focus to reviewing processes and structures, the “pendulum swung too far in the wrong direction.”  He said we would be seeing the pendulum swing back and more emphasis put on the review of credentials files in the near future.

This week’s question was answered by Kathy Matzka, CPMSM, CPCS, a consultant based in Lebanon, IL. For more information about the changes Joint Commission has in store for 2009, check out a special report on the topic accompanying the December issue of Briefings on Credentialing, archived at www.credentialingresourcecenter.com.

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