Join the conversation: Board certification and competency
Little did I know how many responses I would get when I included a news bite in this week’s issue of Medical Staff Leader Connection regarding a new study that explores the relationship between board certification and privileging!
A study in the Archives of Surgery suggests that hospitals do not consistently require physicians to be board certified to receive privileges. Out of the 109 hospitals that were surveyed, only 5% required surgeons to be board certified when they received initial privileges. In addition, 82% of all hospitals surveyed allowed surgeons ad non-surgical subspecialists to retain privileges after their board certification expired.
Here are some of the comments you had to share:
“We use board certification as one of many elements that we review to support current competency. Board certification can not stand alone and should not be the lone requirement to make or break privileges but it is a relevant piece of information to review during privileging.”
~Pamela Cochran, CPMSM, CPCS
North Fulton Regional Hospital
“Our medical staff, since the early ’90s, has required new applicants to be in the board certification process or board certified. Board certification is a requirement for medical staff membership. We have been running into a problem with some of our staff that has chosen not to become recertified due to the process becoming somewhat onerous and they feel of no benefit since it doesn’t affect reimbursement.”
~W. Curt Dandridge, MD, MBA, FACS
Interim Sr. VP Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer
St. John’s Regional Medical Center
“We all know that board certification, or any test, does not completely assure competency. However, most truly dedicated physicians look upon certification as a measure of excellence. I think the board requirement should be mandatory.”
~C. Y. Davis, MD, FACOG
Chief Medical Officer
Montgomery Regional Hospital
“I do not believe anyone would argue the fact that board certification serves as an excellent benchmark for competence. However, it should not be over-rated. Some physicians received their certification for a lifetime. If they were certified 30 years ago, I don’t believe that should serve as such a powerful indicator of current competence. We are in a small, rural, high-poverty area and it is not easy recruiting physicians. Although most of our medical staff is board certified, it is not a requirement (except where required by state regulations, i.e., medical director of the emergency department). I believe we have many very competent and talented physicians, some of whom are not board certified, for various reasons. I think a physician may prove competence via other avenues. I also do not automatically hold that a board certified physician is necessarily the best physician. There are other characteristics to be considered when identifying a well trained, competent and qualified physician.”
~Rhonda Hamlett
Medical Staff Coordinator
Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center
Feel free to chime in on this conversation!
To read more about board certification, visit HospitalistLeadership.com
About the Author: Elizabeth (Liz) Jones is an associate editor at HCPro. She writes and contributes to several monthly newsletters including Medical Staff Briefing, Hospitalist Leadership Advisor, and Credentialing and Peer Review Legal Insider. Liz graduated from Salem (MA) State College in 2003 with a B.A. in professional writing. Before joining HCPro, Liz wrote for a national monthly business publication where she gained experience in executive-level business and healthcare issues.
Shaun Ross, MD | Oct 17, 2009 | Reply
There are many things that go into training a good physician and for measuring competency. We spend an enormous about of time and energy taking test and after this process is over we have to take another test to prove that we actually spent all the time and energy. You run a marathon and then you must run another to prove that you actually ran the first. Only in America. Just another form of elitism and exclusion. It is this very thing that has allowed others to dictate and control healthcare without including us in the process. It this nonsense that was eroded our scope of practice and sphere of influence. If I were strictly judge by my test grades although I always got good to great test scores and grades, I would have never made it out of inner city Washington, DC. Board Certification is voluntary and there are no double bind random controlled studies ever conducted that shows or proves that a boarded doctor is better than a non-boarded doctor. Learning is life long and after 30 years of schooling, physical and emotional stress and is some cases abuse, and $100,000 of school debt, I have earned the right to be a doctor and I damn good one at that and no one especially not some small group of people who call themselves a board and charge you nearly 2 grand to tell me what I already know is going to tell me different. There are others things that demand and deserve our attention and this topic is not one of them. I am a proud to be a doctor but I would not do it again. Because of things like this, it is not worth the frustration.