Poll question: Reimbursing for practitioner certifications

The American Board of Medical Specialties approved a new medical specialty for treating child abuse last month. This move highlights the importance practitioners place on regulating their work through certification programs. Medical staffs also value certifications and sometimes make them a privileging requirement.

In this week’s poll question we want to know if your organization helps pay for these certifications. Take the poll below and see how your facility compares to others.

October 12 due date for CRC Symposium speaker applications

The deadline for CRC Symposium speaker applications is almost here!

Each year our Greeley consultants share expert credentialing and privileging advice during the Credentialing Resource Center Symposium. In 2010, we want to share the stage with talented voices from the field. Below are the four tracks we’ll cover at next year’s symposium at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, NV, May 6-7.

If you’re interested in presenting, please copy the fill information at the bottom of the page into an email, fill it out, and email it to Associate Editor Emily Berry at eberry@hcpro.com by October 12, 2009.

• Privileging Challenges and Solutions: Presentations in this track will provide attendees with the tools to master privileging trends for low-volume providers, advanced practice professionals, telemedicine providers, and create a common template from which to draft each practitioner’s privileges.

• Practitioner Competency Data: Presentations in this track will help participants create manageable and complete FPPE and OPPE documents using data collected from various departments, build working relationships with other departments to avoid duplicate work, and compile competency data to provide accurate practitioner assessments.

• Credentialing and the Law: Presentations in this track will explore legal do’s and don’t’s using case precedent as well as state and federal laws as a guide. Attendees will learn how to draft policies to avoid lawsuits and what evidence to present to win them.

• Medical Staff Services Department: Presentations in this track will aid the management of the medical staff services department (MSSD)—the ultimate hub of a practitioner’s universe. Session attendees will learn how to keep the MSSD running smoothly through budgeting, managing MSPs, organizing meetings, drafting bylaws, purchasing credentialing software and transitioning to a paperless office, acing an accreditation survey, and more.

Name:
Title:
Credentials:
Organization:
Phone number:
E-mail address:

Please summarize your background/qualifications in medical staff services or the organized medical staff:

Please list any previous speaking or presentation experience:

Please list the topic(s) you are interested in presenting and give a brief description of what you would cover:

NAMSS conference: Photo slideshow

It was so great seeing everyone at NAMSS 33rd Annual Conference & Exhibition in Reno, NV earlier this week. I enjoyed talking to everyone who stopped by the HCPro and Greeley booths to say hello.

Here are some photo highlights from my trip.

This year’s conference was held in Reno. But don’t be fooled by its desert location—the weather was downright chilly when you stepped out of the hotel.

For me, the conference started at the Chicago airport when I ran into a group of MSPs heading West. Here’s a photo of fellow blogger Rita Schwab waiting for our airplane.

Our friends at CACTUS software posed for a group photo at the opening of the exhibit hall on Sunday night.

Laura Harrington, RN, MHA, CHCQM, FAIHQ, director of credentialing and privileging at The Greeley Company, was on hand to talk strategy when it came to medical staff matters.

Also on hand were Rick Sheff, MD, CMSL, Chairman and Executive Director of The Greeley Company and Maureen Coler, who answered Core Privilege Plus software questions. (R. to L. Emily Berry, Rick Sheff, Maureen Coler).

HCPro book authors Nancy Lian, CPMSM, CPCS and Carol Cairns, CPMSM, CPCS stopped by to say hello to MSPs. (R. to L. Susan Collier, Nancy Lian, Carol Cairns).

Congratulations to Merella Schandl, CPMSM, CPCS who won this year’s Coach bag raffle. What a great surprise!

I can’t wait to meet new faces at next year’s conference! What was your favorite memory in Reno? Share your stories in the comment boxes below.

Tip of the week: Use professional reference questionnaires to make sound credentialing decisions—Free form!

It is more important than ever to create an effective method of capturing performance data that allows the credentials committee and others to make evidence-based credentialing and privileging decisions. However, obtaining more than a neutral letter from an applicant’s previous or current affiliations can be difficult.

A carefully designed, criteria-based reference questionnaire can be one of the most valuable tools in your credentialing and privileging tool box. One form can capture the information credentialing professionals need from an initial applicant’s past department chairs, postgraduate training directors, and professional references.

When querying reference sources, always include a copy of the privileges the (re)applicant requested at your facility with the reference questionnaire. Ask the reference source to comment on the applicant’s competence to perform all of the privileges requested.

This week’s tip was adapted from Assessing the Competency of Low-Volume Practitioners: Tools and Strategies for OPPE and FPPE Compliance, by Mark A. Smith, MD, MBA, CMSL and Sally Pelletier, CPMSM, CPCS. For more great tips and tools to help you with your low-volume provider conundrum, join HCPro and The Greeley Company for “Low-Volume Providers Workshop: Solutions to Assess Competency and Comply with FPPE and OPPE” on Oct. 19! Purchase both the book and Web cast and get a discount!

Source: Medical Staff Leader Connection

Contest entry: Streamline credentials committee meetings

Judy Smedra, CPMSM, CPCS, director of medical staff affairs at the University of Kansas Hospital, has instituted a process to streamline activities at credentials committee meetings. All credentials committee members are requested to come to the medical staff office prior to the meeting to review all new applications and reappointments. At the meeting, those individuals take ownership of the files they reviewed by giving a report on the contents and leading the discussion about that applicant.

“This process has made members more actively involved in each meeting and more aware of credentialing requirements and placement of documents in the files. During Joint Commission surveys, this knowledge has been apparent to the surveyors, which is always a plus!” Smedra writes.

Thanks for the great tip Judi! Sometimes the simplest changes make the biggest difference!

Contest entry: Who doesn’t want post-meeting follow up to be a breeze?

Kim Everett, medical staff coordinator at Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, IN, submitted a great form to the Greeley Medical Staff Institute Symposium contest that streamlines post-meeting wrap-ups.

Everett writes that the medical staff departments, services, and committees at Good Samaritan meet at least 200 times per year, and the medical staff services department (MSSD) is responsible for meeting preparations, minutes, and follow up. Agenda items are gathered from hospital departments for approval, but the number can get overwhelming.

To ensure all items are discussed or approved by the various committees, the MSSD created an agenda tracking form, which is made available to department secretaries who are responsible for providing the MSSD with discussion and approval items. The MSSD reviews the document and places it on the appropriate agendas for the right month.

“Implementation of the form has enabled us to ensure appropriate committee approval.  In addition, the tracking forms are kept electronically, and when questioned as to the committees which discussed/approved a particular agenda item, the electronic tracking form quickly points us to which minutes should be reviewed for further information,” Everett writes.

Great stuff Kim! Never underestimate the value of a good form!

To submit your tip, tool, or form, please e-mail Karen Cheung at kcheung@hcpro.com. To learn more about The Greeley Medical Staff Institute Symposium contest, click here.

Joint Commission posts 2010 prepublication standards

It’s that time of year. The Joint Commission posted its 2010 prepublication standards on its Web site earlier this week. Click here to access them.

Check back with the Credentialing Resource Center blog to find out how the updates will affect your medical staff services department.

Contest entry: Save templates to save time

Linda Taylor, CPMSM, director of medical staff services at Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, FL, sent in a useful tip. Save time by saving your documents as electronic templates for the following year.

Linda says,

“After being involved in reorganizing and reworking medical staff offices at several facilities, I found one of the key elements was for me personally to stay organized and reduce paper.  Finding that document or letter you did two years ago with just the right wording can waste a lot of time.

The first thing I do in a new office is to organize my folders in Word.  I set up a folder for each committee, sub group, or function I am responsible for and then subfolders for each year.  At the end of the year, I move everything into that year’s folder.

For general correspondence, I have a current folder, “Correspondence 2009,” and then a “Correspondence” folder where I move the entire year into at the beginning of the new year.

In addition, I always use the same titles for documents and use the xx-xx-xx for date, i.e. Agenda 09-25-09 is stored in the appropriate committee folder as well as Minutes 09-25-09.  This method helps me readily spot the document I need and stay organized.  It also means I don’t have to plow through miles of paper to find something.”

Thanks for sharing this tip!

Keep those contest entries coming to win two free seats to The Greeley Medical Staff Institute Symposium. We’ll announce the final contest winner on Oct. 30.

CP+ breakfast demo at NAMSS conference

We are pleased to extend you a personal invitation for a free demonstration of our exciting privileging software, CP+

Free Live Demonstration
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
7:00 to 8:30 a.m. PST

NAMSS Annual Conference in Reno, NV
Grand Sierra Resort and Casino
Nevada 6 and 7 rooms

Click here to see the agenda and sign up.

Contest entry: OPPE forms for psychiatry

Thanks to Sharon Chaput, RN, CSHA, director of regulatory and quality management at Brattleboro Retreat in Brattleboro, VT, for sending in this OPPE indicator form and OPPE master grid. We here at HCPro have heard for several years now how tricky FPPE and OPPE can be, so we’re happy to share these forms, which can be adapted to meet the needs of any specialty.

“The Joint Commission surveyor told us this past June that this form is the best he has seen in the country,” Chaput writes.

Thanks for sharing, Sharon!

The Greeley Medical Staff Institute Symposium is just weeks away. Be sure to enter our contest to win two free seats before it’s too late!!