A fatal mistake physicians often make when stepping into a leadership role is to convince themselves that they can become an effective leader just through their proven clinical skills. This will set you up for failure because the skills, training, and traits that make you an excellent clinician may be antithetical to the skills that will make you a respected and successful executive leader. Just as you knew little about clinical care before beginning medical school, acknowledge that you know very little about executive leadership skills and that you need to begin a new kind of “school.”

It only takes one missing piece of information that isn’t uncovered within the credentialing process and your organization could wind up making a bad hiring decision. And that could spell trouble for patients and your hospital.

Don’t let that happen to you!

In this whitepaper, you’ll learn:
 

• 13 savvy credentialing best practices
• Tips to minimize litigation risk to your medical facility
• How automating your credentialing processes cuts risk

Download the whitepaper, Minimizing Credentialing Risk: How to Protect Your Patients and Your Hospital, and transform your credentialing processes today! 

The overall rate of medical errors made by residents did not differ significantly between groups with increased direct supervision by attending physicians and those with standard supervision, according to study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

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.

It is very important for the medical staff to be clear on what, if any, impact an employment decision has on a physician’s clinical privileges. Effective communication between HR, administration, and the medical staff (particularly the medical staff president and MSP) is crucial, the experts say.

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.

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.

Earlier this year there was some confusion over CMS’ texting policies. The agency later confirmed that providers are allowed to text patient health information (PHI) using a secure messaging app. However, texting medical orders is still forbidden. Chris Apgar, CISSP, is president and CEO of Apgar & Associates and former HIPAA compliance officer for Providence Health Plans. He spoke with CRCJ about texting policies and compliance.

Who approves temporary privileges in your organization? Answer our latest poll question to let us know. You must be signed in with your free or paid CRC account to participate.

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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!