Credentialing & Privileging

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• Tip of the week: Detail credential committee information in bylaws

  If your bylaws contain a section on the credentials committee, then part of that should include a clear description of the committee’s responsibilities, composition, and function. In determining composition, ensure that the committee benefits from interested, experienced, and knowledgeable members. To accomplish this goal, the members should have the ability to serve for significant tenures (e.g. three years). The chair should be skilled in credentialing, as opposed to being a “rotating” medical staff officer who may have no background in this area and cannot provide continuity of leadership to the committee.

  This week’s tip is from The Greeley Company Guide to Medical Staff Bylaws, Second Edition by Joseph Cooper, MD, CMSL.

• Featured blog post: Listen to your medical staff

  We compiled tips from MSPs about how they achieve buy-in from the medical staff in the August issue of Briefings on Credentialing (available online in mid-July). But MSPs aren’t the only ones who search for medical staff buy-in. Hospitals also rely on medical staffs to implement projects.

  Benjamin F. Call, M.D., FACC, a past medical staff president, and current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello, Idaho says there are a number of techniques for achieving buy-in. “Our hospital’s gone through a series of transitions in its administrative style of management. There are several things we have done that have really made a big difference,” he says.

  Click here to keep reading.

• Poll results: Have you ever paid for work-related expenses out of your own pocket?

  Last week, we asked how many of you pay for work-related expenses out of your own pocket?

  Here’s what you said:

  • 32% said yes, but only on supplies that cost less than $20
  • 52% said yes, I pay for supplies as needed
  • 16% said no, I don’t pay out-of-pocket for supplies
   

• Ask the expert: What is a clinical assistant?

  A clinical assistant (CA) is an individual qualified by academic education and clinical experience or other training to provide patient care services in a clinical or supportive role. CAs provide services only under supervision of a member of the medical staff. CAs provide only those clinical services that are consistent with a written scope of care approved by the medical staff and senior management of the hospital or medical center. CAs are not members of the medical staff and are not privileged through the medical staff.

• Tip of the week: When ordering criminal background checks exclude duplicate data

  You should review in detail which elements of a background check you want to include in your reports and consider whether such information is already obtained in the current credentialing process.

  For example, if you are already querying the applicant’s AMA profile or obtaining direct primary source verification of education and training, it would be duplicative to have the background screening company include that information in its search. Office of Inspector General (OIG) queries are also often included in background screening packages—if your medical staff services department already queries the OIG online, perhaps that portion of the packet can be omitted. Conversely, if it is part of a package deal, omitting it can eliminate an extra step for your department’s personnel.

• Featured blog post: Have you ever paid for work-related expenses out of your own pocket?

  With the economy still in the red, employers’ purse strings are as tight as ever. This penny-pinching doesn’t mean that the need for new office supplies or conference registration fees go away. Have you ever paid for work-related expenses out of your own pocket because the need for them outweighed budget restrictions?

  Take our poll and find out how you compare with your peers.

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