Separate ambulatory privileges for physicians in outpatient settings?
Many medical staffs invest a considerable amount of time thinking about or actually developing and trying to implement ambulatory privileges. Before your medical staff does so, make sure to answer this questions: Are you required to have separate ambulatory privileges for those physicians practicing exclusively in an outpatient setting?
The answer to this is maybe. It is not a trivial question. If you truly are required to have separate privileges because of your medical staff bylaws or your health system organization of practices, then so be it. Although this may sound heretical, the converse is, don’t do it if you don’t have to. Of course you are concerned about the quality of care delivered by physicians anywhere, but there are other ways to achieve ambulatory practice oversight than through a hospital-based medical staff peer review system that is ill prepared and not designed to monitor care outside the hospital building.