Should all employed physicians be credentialed?

Q: Do you recommend that all employed physicians be credentialed, even if they work in an office setting?

A: The answer to that is, do you have to have them credentialed? If they fall under The Joint Commission survey—that is, the physician is considered part of the hospital for the purposes of Joint Commission survey—then they have to be credentialed.

If you have an office that is not part of the hospital’s survey, you don’t have to have them credentialed by the medical staff process, but I would suggest that credentialing them is still a good idea. It would always help to make sure you’re getting the right people into the right positions.

Timothy Adelman, JD, MBA, answered this question at the NAMSS Educational Conference and Exhibition, held in New Orleans in October 2014.