An increasingly common mechanism is to establish a formal information-sharing agreement between the hospital medical staff and the employed physician group. These agreements allow the parties to recognize that patient safety and the effectiveness of their credentialing, privileging, and peer review processes can be improved by the appropriate sharing of credentialing, quality improvement, and peer review information related to physicians—in other words, peer review activity. The agreement also contains language that the parties wish to avoid any suggestion that the appropriate sharing of information as set forth herein would in any way constitute a waiver of the confidentiality privilege afforded to peer review activities and related information. In other words, it allows the parties to share physician performance information while still retaining peer review protections afforded by your state. The following is a sample information sharing agreement.

Inappropriate communication among physicians and other hospital staff can take many forms—from verbal outbursts and threats to failing to complete medical records or notes in a timely fashion. Whether overt or subtle, these behaviors undermine team interactions, creating an uncomfortable, nonproductive work environment. Such an environment can lead to medical errors, poor patient satisfaction, and gaps in staffing. In September 2016, The Joint Commission reissued a Sentinel Event Alert stating that “behaviors that undermine a culture of safety” should not be tolerated.

More medical staffs are implementing multispecialty peer review committees in the hopes of having one committee that can objectively review and assess the work of colleagues. Although there may be initial cultural resistance to this approach, having a multispecialty committee can eliminate issues such as only having one physician in a specialty or developing non-specialty-specific indicators.

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The 2019 Credentialing Resource Center Symposium will be held February 26-28 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand. With so many credentialing, privileging, and medical staff leadership topics to cover, the Symposium has been expanded to 2.5 days and will feature a new provider enrollment track. Stay tuned as we announce our speakers and agenda, but in the meantime, mark your calendars!

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