Ask the expert: How should our medical staff credential and privilege moonlighting residents and fellows?

Residents and fellows who are working in the hospital in a capacity outside their training programs must be credentialed using the medical staff process. If they are still in their training period, they do not qualify for medical staff membership because they have not completed their training. However, they can be privileged in the same fashion as others who do not qualify for medical staff membership. The medical staff should define what level of training is adequate for privileging and process them like all other candidates.

Usually residents and fellows in training who moonlight in the organization are either not eligible for medical staff membership (i.e., residents) or uninterested in medical staff membership (i.e., fellows); they are typically only interested in privileges that allow them to moonlight. They are not assigned to a medical staff category because they are not members. They still retain the full fair hearing and appeal rights as full members do because they are privileged through the medical staff.

This week’s tip is from The Greeley Guide to Medical Staff Bylaws, Third Edition, by Mary J. Hoppa, MD, CMSL, published by HCPro.