Synergy - July/August 2013 - 23

industry feature

remain?	Unfortunately,	under-reporting	
by	state	licensing	boards	and	hospitals	has	
been	identified	as	a	significant	concern	
within	recent	years	by	The	Data	Bank.	
Consequently,	The	Data	Bank	is	ramping	
up	its	efforts	to	monitor	and	enforce	
compliance	and	should	be	commended	for	
these	efforts.
Time	will	tell	whether	our	example	case	
is	truly	a	sentinel	event	in	the	course	of	
credentialing	history.	At	the	very	least,	just	
as	in	the	case	of	serial	killer,	Dr.	Michael	
Swango1	in	the	late	1990s,	our	example	
case	should	cause	everyone	involved	in	
credentialing	at	a	national	level	as	well	as	
individual	healthcare	systems	and	facilities	to	
review	their	processes.
As	with	state	licensing	boards,	each	
hospital’s	credentialing	body	must	make	a	
decision	based	upon	the	information	they	
receive.	To	some	extent,	in	some	facilities,	
there	is	still	a	culture	among	physicians	
to	protect	their	colleagues	or	peer	group.	
The	extent	to	which	this	culture	impacts	
the	decisions	related	to	credentialing	and	
privileging	depends	upon	the	facility.	We	
have	seen	one	extreme	to	the	other,	but	it	is	
important	to	recognize	that	even	if	you	have	
excellent	credentialing	strategies	and	policies	
in	place,	the	culture	in	which	you	work	
ultimately	impacts	the	way	in	which	you	
credential	and	privilege	practitioners.	The	
remark	attributed	to	Peter	Drucker,	“Culture	
Eats	Strategy	for	Breakfast	(or	lunch),”	comes	
to	mind.	Do	you	know	what	your	culture	
dictates?	See	call	out	box	on	page	22.
The	intent	of	these	questions	is	to	make	you	
think	about	the	importance	of	credentialing	
on	a	daily	basis	and	to	objectively	assess	the	
quality	of	the	process	that	you	own,	along	with	
your	medical	staff	leaders	and	board.	If	you	or	
a	loved	one	were	a	patient	and	your	process	
was	followed	as	it	stands	today,	are	you	
confident	that	only	qualified	and	competent	
practitioners	would	be	delivering	that	care	at	
your	facility	and	to	your	loved	one?
Promotion	of	quality	patient	care	and	
all	that	it	entails	comes	from	within	an	
organization.	Those	healthcare	entities	
that	support	the	credentialing	process	
and	the	hard	decisions	that	their	medical	
staffs	must	make	are	those	that	do	not	

have	negligent	credentialing	issues.	Those	
entities	that	choose	to	cut	corners	are	
those	entities	that	will	continue	to	struggle	
with	negligent	credentialing.	All	the	laws	
in	all	the	lands	will	not	change	that.	
What’s	in	your	process?	■

Stephanie Russell, CPMSM, CPCS, has been a
medical staff services professional for more than
25 years. She is a certified professional in medical
services management and certified provider
credentialing specialist. She’s worked for 19 years
at SwedishAmerican Health System in the
medical staff services and credentialing
management departments. Russell is a past
regional representative and director of NAMSS

Board of Directors, and past president, and
board member of the Illinois Association of
Medical Staff Services. She is currently an
education instructor for NAMSS.
Sally Pelletier, CPMSM, CPCS, is an advisory
consultant and chief credentialing officer, with
The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro, Inc.,
in Danvers, Massachusetts. She brings more than
20 years of credentialing and privileging experience
to her work with medical staff leaders and medical
services professionals across the nation. She has
served many roles throughout the years for NAMSS
both at a national and regional level. Pelletier
presents at state and national seminars on a
variety of topics related to accreditation standards
and survey preparation, medical staff leadership
training, credentialing and privileging, and
physician competency management.

N AT I O N A L A S S O C I AT I O N M E D I C A L S TA F F S E R V I C E S

&

37th Educational
Conference Exhibition
September 21-25, 2013
The Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa
Hollywood, Florida

SAVE THE DATE!
REGISTER NOW!
Registration opens in April 2013.

Visit www.namss.org/conference for more information.
Visit www.namss.org/conference for more information.

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Synergy - July/August 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Synergy - July/August 2013
