It's National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week! How will you be celebrating? Send your ideas, tips, and photos, to Managing Editor Karen Kondilis at kkondilis@hcpro.com, and you could see your contributions featured on the CRC site. And check your inbox for details on a special deal we’re launching to honor the hardworking professionals at the heart of patient safety and quality care.

At least one-third of U.S. clinicians experience burnout, often caused by lengthy work hours, technologies and documentation requirements, insufficient resources, and an inability to find a healthy work-life balance. A new report from the National Academy of Medicine outlines six strategies healthcare systems can use to address these contributing factors and reduce physician burnout:

When faced with a negligent credentialing claim, it is absolutely essential to preserve the integrity of documentation that is in the hospital’s or healthcare entity’s possession. Take steps to ensure that information does not go missing. In most organizations, a risk manager will place the relevant credentials file in a separate locked location while litigation is pending or ongoing.

In 2018, 91.5% of people in the United States had healthcare coverage for at least part of the year. That means that 8.5%, or 27.5 million people, went the entire year without any form of health insurance.

Credentialing practitioners for managed care enrollment can be tricky. Using a checklist, like the one here, will ensure you don't miss any steps in the process and that you are following the proper timelines for verification.

Urology is the surgical specialty that focuses on diseases of the male and female urinary tract, as well as the male reproductive organs. Urologists are also referred to as genitourinary surgeons (the organs of reproduction and urination together are often referred to as the genitourinary tract). These specialists manage non-surgical problems such as urinary tract infections and benign prostatic hyperplasia, as well as surgical problems such as the surgical management of cancers, the correction of congenital abnormalities, and correcting stress incontinence.

Following a fair and thorough investigation, the medical staff in your hospital has determined a physician has clinical performance issues and has recommended a limitation in clinical privileges. Per the medical staff bylaws, a fair hearing process commences. If the hearing/appeal processes do not change the limitation of privileges, this is considered an “adverse action” and therefore must be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), in accordance with the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 (HCQIA). It’s a no-brainer, right? But in today’s hospital environment, not all scenarios are so clear-cut.

All practitioners—employed or not—are to be held to the same minimally defined medical staff standards for clinical care, professionalism, documentation, on-call responsibilities, and so forth. One of your responsibilities as a medical staff leader is to ensure that the expectations are adequate and that they are being met. If the health system employer chooses to have a higher standard, that is not the concern of the medical staff.