• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Timely reappointment: The ongoing challenge

Credentialing Resource Center Connection, October 8, 2003

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

Dear Credentialing Colleague:

I continue to hear incredible stories about the problems associated with encouraging physicians to complete their reapplications promptly. There's the story of the medical staff services professional (MSSP) who hand-delivers copies of the applications to physicians' offices and waits while they complete them (no kidding). There's the vice president of medical affairs who organized a reapplication completion day in the hospital cafeteria, complete with a fancy buffet.

And then there's my favorite--the hospital that actually paid a physician to reapply (not all physicians were paid; only those who did not return the reapplication in a timely manner)! When I inquired as to why the facility paid to have its forms completed, the MSSP responded, "It was the only way we could get it back." And what sum of money urged this physician along? Fifty dollars.

Apart from these innovative attempts to obtain reapplications on time, consider the following suggestions:

• Treat physicians as adults. After all, they ARE adults. They need to understand that rules apply to them as well as anyone else.
  
• Be businesslike and kind. Make reapplications available as far in advance as possible, and eliminate as much bureaucracy as possible.
  
• Streamline your reapplication by eliminating all unnecessary requests. The facility does not need to know the name of the reapplicant's spouse or children, or his/her hobbies, home address, partners, office hours, etc. Such material may be nice to have, but it shouldn't be part of the reapplication process.
  
• Pre-populate the reapplication with all information you already know about the applicant.
  
• Develop a user-friendly online reapplication that can be completed from any computer with Internet access.
  
• Make copies of blank reapplication forms available in various locations within the hospital (e.g., library, physicians' lounge, surgeons' lounge, etc.).
  

I welcome everyone's suggestions and success stories. Send them our way, and we will publish them in the next edition of Credentialing Connection.

That's all for this week.

All the best,

Hugh Greeley

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

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