Archive for July, 2009
Contest winner: Physician report card tool
Source: TOPS Surgical Specialty Hospital, Houston, TX.
Congratulations to Nancy Bertling, RN, MBA, quality manager of TOPS Surgical Specialty Hospital in Houston, TX! Nancy is the July winner for the Greeley Medical Staff Institute Symposium giveaway for two free seats at the Nov. 8-9 seminar in Naples, Fl.
Nancy submitted a report card for quality and re-credentialing that keeps track of physician activity. This tool is also used in dashboards for quality and peer review.
You can download the physician report card here. Thanks for sharing, Nancy!
To all the readers, you can still submit your entry for next month’s contest. Find details here. Keep those entries coming, and good luck!
Wisconsin supreme court rules that physicians must alert patients to all treatment options
Wisconsin’s supreme court ruled that William Brusky, MD, failed to inform a patient of alternate diagnostic and treatment options, according to the Fond Du Lac Reporter, a newspaper in Fond Du Lac, WI. A trial jury initially rejected the negligence claim against Brusky, and an appeals court upheld that determination, but the state supreme overturned it last Friday.
The patient claims that Brusky’s incorrect diagnosis and failure to provide him with complete information regarding treatment options caused irreparable damage, including slurred speach and partial paralysis.
If disclosure of all treatment options is a requirement, then how should hospital quality departments track that? Should such disclosures be in writing? What are your thoughts?
Hospital seeks gag order over “negligent credentialing” ad
The law firm tried to place ads in local newspapers asking patients of the accused doctor to contact the firm. The ads explain that the doctor is involved in a case of alleged negligent credentialing, according to a July 22 Northwest Arkansas Times article.
Despite the use of the word alleged, the hospital where the doctor practiced felt the ads were too strongly worded and could mislead potential jurors; it’s seeking a gag order to stop the ads. The law firm claims the ad falls within the limits of the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct.
Advancing an application to credentials committee, or not
What percentage of the applications your office receives advance to a credentials committee review? Take our poll and see how your statistics compare to your peers.
In the comment boxes below, let us know some of the common reasons why those applications don’t move on to the next step.
Summer book sale
A well stocked bookshelf is an editor’s best friend. Here’s a shot of mine below.
If you’re looking to restock yours with the latest books about credentialing, privileging, competency, reappointment evaluations, and other important medical staff issues, check out the sale we’re having at www.HCMarketplace.com.
Our sale doesn’t just apply to medical staff books, we’ve got the other departments in hospitals covered, too, so pass this savings message on to a friend.
Medversant sues Morrisey Associates over credentialing patent
Medversant Technologies LLC is taking Morrisey Associates to court over what they see as a patent infringement of their credentialing software.
Medversant unveiled its patented product earlier this year with a press release explaining: “The ‘Electronic Credentials Verification and Management System’ (U.S. Patent 7,529,682) is a foundational patent for the company and provides for a system for storing, continually verifying, and retrieving credentials records in a global network environment.”
The marketing around Morrisey’s MSO for the Web (MSOW) product seems a little too similar for comfort to Medversant.
“It is evident from their advertising that they are marketing for sale a product that is consistent with our AutoVerify [which uses the patented product] process, which is utilized by health plans, hospitals, state Medicaid programs and other healthcare organizations to continuously credential the providers who provide healthcare services,” Philip Collias, JD, general counsel for Medversant said in a Cloud Computing Journal article.
The United States District Court for the Central District of California will hear the case. Keep reading the Credentialing Resource Center blog for more updates about the case and its impact for medical staff services departments.
NCQA’s take on ongoing monitoring requirements
The biggest stumbling block for medical staff offices these days seems to be complying with The Joint Commission’s standards for ongoing monitoring. But that’s not the only accrediting organization to have such a standard.
NCQA also has an ongoing monitoring standard as part of its health plan accreditation. The September issue of Briefings on Credentialing (available online in mid-August) features a Q & A with Frank Stelling, MEd, MPH, assistant director of policy at NCQA. He says that NCQA-accredited organizations have not struggled to comply with this standard. He also outlines ways NCQA-accredited organizations meet this standard. Some of their techniques may be applicable to Joint Commission-accredited organizations, too.
Here’s what he told BOC:
Do you Twitter?
Starting this week there’s a new way to receive the latest credentialing news. You can follow me on Twitter @CRC_EmilyB.
Twitter is a Web site that allows users to send 140 character updates to others in real time. Individual posts on the Web site are nicknamed Tweets. As some of you know, several hospitals have made headlines this year by Twittering during live surgical procedures. For more information about this phenomenon, check out “Get to know today’s social media Web sites: Know the difference between Twitter and a tweet before drafting your organization’s policy,” in the July issue of Credentialing and Peer Review Legal Insider, archived on www.HCPro.com.
We’re on Twitter, but are you? Take our poll to see how your level of tech savviness compares to your peers.
Credentialing the Surgeon General
Dr. Regina Benjamin was nominated by President Obama today for the post of U.S. Surgeon General. Officially, the Office of the Surgeon General is part of the Office of Public Health and Science. Unofficially, the person in that role is known as the nation’s doctor.
Being the nation’s doctor is a pretty hefty title to carry. Chances are Benjamin didn’t have to fill out a typically credentialing application before winning the nomination, but if she did, she’d have some impressive credentials to list. She is past president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 2008, and rebuilt the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic, which she founded, three times after it was destroyed by hurricanes and floods.
If you were responsible for credentialing a surgeon general, what are some key elements you’d like to see on his or her application?
Georgia Supreme court redefines discoverability
The Supreme Court of Georgia in June ruled that plaintiffs who bring negligent credentialing lawsuits against a hospital can discover certain hospital credentialing records in Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County, d/b/a South Georgia Medical Center v. Meeks et al.
“Unless the credentialing information involves the evaluation of the quality and efficiency of actual medical services, it does not come within the peer review and medical review privileges,” states the court document.
Given that credentialing and peer review are interdependent, this ruling could greatly affect how the two functions are performed. My first thought was “Is nothing sacred?” but I”m curious what you think. Is this fair?