Distribute OPPE reports on a strategic schedule
This week, CRC Daily covers ongoing professional practice evaluation (OPPE). The frequency with which a medical staff services department or quality department distributes OPPE reports depends on its accreditor’s specifications for the review cycle. For example, The Joint Commission requires organizations to perform OPPE more frequently than once per year to meet its definition of “ongoing.”
When deciding how often to distribute OPPE results, do not focus on how quickly the medical staff can turn around data but rather on how much time is necessary to complete the entire evaluation cycle, which includes data production, analysis, and result distribution. For example, producing OPPE reports quarterly may be feasible from a report generation perspective, but that is only one part of the entire evaluation cycle. Logistical challenges and organizational resources, such as staffing levels and access to appropriate databases, may heavily influence the frequency of reviews.
Regardless of the chosen frequency, align the time frames for OPPE and recredentialing. Recredentialing, which typically happens every two years, is informed by OPPE findings, so synchronizing the two processes reduces duplicative work and saves time. For example, many organizations perform an OPPE review every eight months because it dovetails nicely with a 24-month reappointment cycle.
Another option is to stagger the delivery of OPPE reports by specialty or practitioner groups rather that delivering them to all practitioners at once. This approach gives medical staff leaders the opportunity to spread out the work effort and integrate discipline-specific performance improvement initiatives with the OPPE report delivery. It also allows MSPs and quality professionals to tackle files for larger or more challenging specialties during less hectic months.