Credentialing

Medical staff services professionals are on the front line of patient safety, but their work often requires maneuvering a path full of inefficiencies and roadblocks.

Last week, I traveled to the Emerald City of Seattle, Washington for the National Association Medical Staff Services’ (NAMSS) 39th Educational Conference and Exhibition. Similar to the recent American Society for Healthcare Human Resources (ASHHRA) conference, the theme for this year’s NAMSS conference, “Embracing Change: A Journey of Leadership,” also focused on leadership.

While physicians deserve the utmost respect for their important role in taking care of patients, the following recent news stories show that there’s bad doctors out there. Fortunately, there are ways healthcare organizations can minimize risk. For example, incorporating a criminal background check in a medical staff credentialing process can help hospitals safeguard both patients and staff. Cases like these are alarming reminders of why background checks are so important.

While hospitals and other healthcare organizations generally aren’t required to run time-of-hire or ongoing background checks, they often do as part of their voluntary due diligence procedures and to mitigate their liability risk. Some states do require background checks for candidates for certain healthcare positions, but organizations typically run them on all staff members.

Dionne Austin, PreCheck’s Director or Credentialing Programs and Product Manager for LicenseManager Pro, has been a key member of the PreCheck family since 2005. This coming October marks her 10 years with PreCheck, and we couldn’t be more excited about this milestone.

This February, we are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of LicenseManager Pro, PreCheck’s healthcare license management system. Since its debut in 2005, we’ve been committed to providing healthcare organizations with a comprehensive, streamlined credentialing system to aid in the tedious process of monitoring expired licenses and certifications. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with our development team to discuss how LicenseManager Pro came to be and how it has evolved over the past 10 years.

The consequences of negligent credentialing can be costly to a healthcare organization and its medical staff services department. Organizations that want to renew their focus on credentialing can follow several best practices to protect themselves and ensure they’re doing all they can to remain compliant.

The healthcare industry has been facing major changes, and medical services professionals are no exception. “Things have changed dramatically over the last five years,” says Joel Yohai, MD, MS, a quality improvement consultant at Joint Commission Resources.

As we approach 2015, we wanted to take a look at some of the most pressing issues facing MSPs and their leaders.

To commemorate National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week, November 2-8, 2014, I sat down with PreCheck’s Director of Credentialing Programs, Dionne Austin to discuss the latest trends in medical staff services and her advice for medical services professionals (MSPs) in 2015 and beyond.

As Product Manager for PreCheck’s healthcare license management system, LicenseManager Pro, I’ve taken the National Association Medical Staff Services’ (NAMSS) Certified Provider Credentialing Specialist (CPCS) training course and am familiar with some of the challenges facing medical staff services managers. While the goals may be quite similar, these are some notable differences between background screening and the credentialing process for medical staff services.