Synergy - March/April 2013 - 18

namss focus

NAMSS PASSTM—Creating Efficiencies
through Collaboration
By Linda M Waldorf, BS, CPMSM, CPCS

H

ave you contributed data to the
NAMSS PASS™ or begun
conversations within your
organization to engage with this new
repository? As medical staff professionals and
the experts in credentialing, we must
establish industry best practices to promote
quality care and diminish potential risks
associated with the practitioners we are
considering for credentials . Verification of a
practitioner’s affiliation history has become
an industry best practice and is an integral
step in mitigating legal risks associated with
negligent credentialing claims .
However, given the economic realities facing
all of our institutions, we know that best
practice is often challenged by the push to

perform our patient safety responsibilities in
the most efficient and cost-effective manner
possible . The NAMSS PASS™ provides an
effective, efficient and most importantly,
cost-effective solution for verifying a
practitioner’s affiliation history . Imagine no
more faxing or mailing requests to individual
affiliations, no more waiting for responses
and no need for second or third requests
for verification — and imagine reducing the
time devoted to responding to requests for
affiliation verification .
June Hogg, CPMSM, CPCS, director
of medical staff services at WakeMed
Health and Hospitals has experienced the
efficiencies that are created through an
affiliation history database firsthand . She

“As Chair of the Credentials Committee of
Suburban Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medicine,
NAMSS PASS offers us immediate access
to hospital affiliation information that is
sometimes difficult and time-consuming to
obtain. It can help us to ensure the physician
is giving us a complete history of their hospital
affiliations. NAMSS is also raising the bar with
the standardization of the definition of “good
standing.” I support NAMSS’ efforts to help us
do the important work we do to provide safe and
competent patient care.”
— Todd A. Epstein, MD, Chair of the Credentials Committee
of Suburban Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medicine

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SYNERGY March/april 2013

states, “Directing our managed care queries
alone to Practitioner Hospital Data Bank
(PHDB) reduced our verification queries by
more than half . We are thrilled that NAMSS
and PDHB have partnered to bring us the
NAMSS PASS™ and the capability to view a
comprehensive affiliation history . Kudos to
NAMSS and PHDB for partnering to help
us all streamline our process and be more
efficient .” Through this partnership, NAMSS
and PHDB have created a national repository
of practitioner affiliation history . However,
it will take the support and participation of
the entire credentialing community to make
this database a success and build a complete
affiliation history for every practitioner . ■

“NAMSS PASS is a tool for credentialing and
patient safety that is long overdue. To mitigate
the potential legal risks associated with negligent
credentialing claims, it is essential to identify and
verify a practitioner’s prior affiliations and obtain
meaningful references from those institutions. But
more importantly, it is essential to do so to protect
patients. Now is the time for the credentialing
community to rally together in support of this great
new tool, for the good of each and every patient in
the communities you serve.”
— Paul A. Verardi, Esq., Partner, Horty, Springer & Mattern
Synergy - March/April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Synergy - March/April 2013
