Synergy - May/June 2014 - 24

namss pass™ guide

How NAMSS PASS™ Promotes
Patient Safety
By Kate Conklin, BS, CPMSM, CPCS, CPHQ

I

f you ask any Medical Staff Professional
(MSP) about the most important aspect
of provider credentialing, most would
say it is obtaining and verifying all available
information that relates directly to a
provider's experience and clinical
competency. After all, isn't that what
credentials verification is all about? Well,
this very critical piece of the credentialing
process is, oftentimes, the most difficult to
obtain. It is fraught with the potential for
missed opportunity because of information
that is simply unknown.
Let me frame this discussion through a
plausible real-life scenario. Let's say a
physician presents an application to a
healthcare entity. The physician has been
out of a training program for 10 years and
the medical staff office has received what
seems to be a very complete application.
The physician's professional practice history
shows no gaps in time since completion
of post-graduate training. The physician
has reported numerous hospital affiliations
that can be easily verified via a letter or
a website. The physician has practiced at
one particular hospital the majority of the
time but also served on the active staff at
another hospital in the same city because of
a call arrangement with another physician.
The physician would occasionally admit or
consult at that hospital. There have been
some performance and behavior issues
with this physician at the primary hospital.
In fact, the physician opted to leave before
an investigation could be initiated by the
Medical Executive Committee.
This physician may choose to omit his
hospital affiliation on future credentialing
applications because, after all, he had
been unfairly targeted by the physicians
and administration, and he had another
hospital that could vouch for his practice
that covers the entire time period. (This
scenario might sound familiar to many
MSPs.) The new hospital receives a
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SYNERGY MAY/JUNE 2014

favorable reference from the hospital
where the physician occasionally worked.
The application is complete, and it
appears all of the physician's work history
is captured and verified. A practitioner
with questionable competency has now
slipped through a gap.

the applicant. This allows the MSP and his
or her physician leaders to fully evaluate
whether additional information is needed
from other healthcare organizations.

NAMSS PASS is an excellent tool for
identifying gaps in the provider's reported
work history. It is through the sharing of
provider data that will allow an MSP to
construct an accurate timeline and history
so that all appropriate verifications can be
made. This gap-analysis is an important
step in verifying a physician's affiliation
history because the information is currently
voluntarily reported. Through the NAMSS
PASS resource, the affiliation history about
the provider that is being credentialed is
provided by the primary source and not

continues to be at the forefront of patient
safety. It is the very foundation for ensuring
high-quality healthcare. The contribution
that NAMSS has made to the healthcare
industry through the development of the
NAMSS PASS resource is exactly what is
needed to ensure patient safety.

Credentialing standards continue to be
raised as well as the need for transparency-
and for good reason. Provider credentialing

Kate Conklin, BS, CPMSM, CPCS,
CPHQ, is Past President of
NAMSS.
Synergy - May/June 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Synergy - May/June 2014
