Unsurprisingly, integrating medical staffs across multiple hospitals in a system has numerous effects on the culture within each individual medical staff, although these effects tend to be overwhelmingly positive. When medical staffs are unified correctly, each staff can still maintain its local culture. In fact, Todd Sagin, MD, JD, says, “If the local culture is a valuable one, then unification should not be an occasion to dilute its contribution.”

Peer recommendations are powerful tools for MSPs. They often complete the picture you are trying to put together of the advanced practice professional (APP) during the initial credentialing or reappointment process. MSPs can glean information regarding APPs' competency from peer recommendations, which is essential to pass on to credentialing committees so that they can make well-informed privileging decisions.

Knowing what the standards say regarding who can provide a recommendation is the science behind peer references. The art is establishing best practices that support the capture of information from the best possible sources. For a full description of each accreditor’s standards for peer recommendations, see the following sample form, excerpted from the HCPro title Verify and Comply: Credentialing, Medical Staff, and Ambulatory Care Standards, Seventh Edition.