Ask the expert: When verifying an applicant's work history, how far back should the medical staff services department go?

Each hospital must determine how far back to verify applicant’s healthcare-related employment, appointments, and/or privilege history. This includes:

• Terminations
• Challenges
• Pending investigations or decisions
• Voluntary resignations
• Relinquishments of medical staff membership, clinical privileges, or insurance panel appointments

Bearing in mind that the purpose of checking with former affiliations and employers is to determine current competence, it is not unreasonable to think that verification of an affiliation where the physician practiced more than 10 years ago is a poor indication of that physician’s current clinical competence. After 10 years of practice, most physicians would have learned and adapted new skills. Also, if a physician had a prior employment as a computer technician, for example, before going into medicine, that would not be applicable to his or her current profession. Checking non-healthcare-related employment, however, may provide insight into interpersonal relationships and the applicant’s ability to function in a collaborative manner. Although this information might be useful, most facilities usually begin the verification process with any relevant healthcare employment.

This week’s tip is adapted from Ready, Set, Credential: Questions, Games, and Other Strategies to Train Your Staff, Second Edition by Nancy Lian, CPMSM, CPCS.