Develop a pre-screen process for employed physicians

Bring together disparate departments under a clearly defined process when hiring employed physicians, says William K. Cors, MD, MMM, FACPE, chief medical officer, Pocono Health System; East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, in the July issue of Medical Staff Briefing. The intent is to take down enough of the department silos to allow collaboration and coordination of specified processes and functions impacting the employed physician and the organized medical staff. Because of the different reporting relationships, as well as any organizational political barriers, the initial intervention often requires an executive champion and/or a time-limited representative task force that has been given the authority to implement a solution to the challenge at hand.

Step one is to identify the basic roles, responsibilities, expectations and outcomes for each party. Education about physician recruiting and credentialing/privileging needs to be understood and shared. An examination of the current structure and processes is conducted to see what works and what requires change. From all this, clearly delineated processes, checklists, timelines, algorithms, and policies are established to identify how a candidate will be further vetted in a pre-screen fashion beyond just the information supplied by the candidate. This will help create clarity, reduce confusion, and eliminate redundancy.

Source: Medical Staff Briefing