Credentialing Resource Center Journal

As long as doctors treat patients effectively and efficiently, they are doing their jobs well, right? Maybe that was the case in years past, but the demands placed on today’s doctors are more complex than that. Although treating patients still remains at the heart of a doctor’s job description, medical staffs also expect that doctors will behave reasonably. When they don’t, hospitals and medical staffs face numerous ethical dilemmas, such as:

What if a doctor who does an excellent job treating patients exhibits disruptive behavior?

What if that doctor is well respected in the field by his or her peers who don’t know about the behavioral problems?

What if the medical staff works with an underserved population, worked hard to recruit the doctor, and doesn’t want to take any action to risk losing him or her?

If the MSP is unable to obtain any required information, the hospital should inform the applicant that it is now his or her responsibility to obtain the required information and that the hospital will postpone or discontinue the reapplication process until it receives the required information.

Today’s credentialing practices extend beyond the traditional hospital realm. Hospital-based MSPs can benefit from learning about other approaches to credentialing, whether it takes place in a medical board setting or in a nonhospital organization. These alternative insights allow MSPs more career flexibility and can help improve their current credentialing practices.