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Great communication is the key to successful processes

Credentialing Resource Center Connection, April 12, 2007

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Ronald Reagan was known as "The Great Communicator" for his powerful delivery and for his effective speeches during his presidency. Regardless of your politics, I think we would all agree that having this particular title or nickname bestowed upon us would be an honor.

Ineffective procedures and confusion are frequently the result of miscommunication or no communication whatsoever. There seems to be a recurring theme in hospitals-whether I'm working to maximize the efficiency of their medical staff office, or to establish a strong link with the quality department for determining ongoing competency of physicians, or to streamline and incorporate best practices for their credentialing and privileging processes-and that theme is: great communication is the key to successful processes.

Interpersonal and communication skills is one of the six general competencies integrated into the credentialing and privileging standards by The Joint Commission from the ACGME and the ABMS joint initiative. This particular element could just as easily be an area of competency for a medical staff office. There are many different aspects to evaluate in the day-to-day operations of a medical staff office that have to do with communication.

Consider the following areas of communication that affect the medical staff office and that medical staff and medical staff leadership need access to:

1.      Medical staff office personnel

-         How effective is your telephone etiquette in the medical staff office? 

o       Are physicians more likely than not sent into voice mail?  If so, what is protocol for responding to messages? 

-         Are the hours of the medical staff office consistent and flexible

o       Can the medical staff leadership count on staff to be available for a defined timeframe during a work week?

o       Are the medical staff office personnel available to come in early or stay late as needed?

2.      Medical staff organization documents

-         Are medical staff documents (medical staff bylaws, rules and regulations, applications and forms) posted as resource documents on the hospital intranet?

-         Are practitioners notified of revisions in a timely fashion?

3.      Notifications

-         Are notifications for meeting notices and expiration reminders (license, certification, insurance, DEA) sent electronically via email or e-fax?

-         Is there a medical staff newsletter that highlights and summarizes key topics of interest pertaining to the medical staff

-         Has the medical staff office conducted a survey of the physicians for their preferred method of receiving communications?

4.      Credentialing and privileging information

-         Are performance feedback reports provided routinely to practitioners for their information?

-         Are applicants apprised regularly and consistently of the status of their application for membership and/or privileges?

-         Is there a private area in which department chairs can confidentially conduct their review of files?

-         Are informational and educational credentialing and privileging resources routinely disseminated to medical staff leaders?

-         Are medical staff leaders appropriately informed of changes in accreditation standards related to credentialing and privileging?

I'm sure that you can identify many other areas where there is opportunity for improvement in the communication mechanisms utilized by your medical staff office.  A great place to start would be to conduct a physician satisfaction survey that asks pertinent questions related to the effectiveness in many of these areas and others that you identify.  Working toward establishing more powerful and effective communication in your organization may result in your department being labeled, The Great Communicators!

"The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished."
- George Bernard Shaw

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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