During the past 15 years, physician leaders have often expressed a desire to make peer review more positive. Key practices that allowed for this shift were the increased standardization of case review and the use of aggregate data that increased the inherent fairness of peer review, recognizing excellence in case review and OPPE targets, and the hospital performance improvement and patient safety movements that provided new ideas for helping physicians improve.

The difference between being accredited as a hospital or as an outpatient center can mean a difference of thousands of dollars in revenue when billing Medicare. And if you are a smaller, specialty hospital or an outlying facility that is part of a larger health system, be prepared: CMS and other surveyors will expect proof that you meet the requirements for being surveyed as a hospital and not as some other type of provider.

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