• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

When physicians disappear

Credentialing Resource Center Connection, July 8, 2005

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

Dear credentialing colleague:

What happens when a credentials committee finds out that a physician on their medical staff is no longer around? Perhaps the credentials committee noticed this physician's absence at the time of reappointment because he or she failed to submit a reapplication. The answer to question is simple. If a physician does not reapply, that physician's appointment expires and he or she is no longer on the medical staff. If at some point in the future the physician returns to the hospital, he or she should apply for membership following the same process followed by new applicants.

The situation is complicated when a physician with 18 months left on his or her appointment disappears. Perhaps the physician has left the group he or she was working with, closed his or her practice, or retired to Fiji. After a medical staff professional brings this situation to the attention of the appropriate department chair, credentials committee, or chief of staff, a quick review of existing bylaws will likely indicate that this situation was not contemplated when the document was drafted and provides no guidance.

The credentials committee should request that the physician is sent a certified letter to his or her last official address. This letter should inquire about the physician's practice plans and his or her desire to continue medical staff membership. If the letter goes undelivered or the physician fails to respond within a reasonable time (30 days), the credentials committee should recommend to the medical executive committee (MEC) that the physician's appointment be automatically terminated due to unexplained absence. Perhaps legal counsel would suggest that a second letter be drafted, and again sent certified, explaining to the physician that his or her appointment has automatically expired and indicating that he or she should feel free to apply as a new applicant upon returning to the community.

This is one of those issues in which the credentials and MEC should simply apply common sense. It is, after all, inappropriate for the medical staff roster to list physicians about which the hospital does not have current information.

That's it for this week.

All the best,
Hugh Greeley
http://www.greeley.com/seminars/

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

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