Tip of the week: Determine physicians’ interest in providing inpatient care before re-granting privileges

Before processing a low- or no-volume practitioner’s request for renewed privileges, hospital and medical staff leaders should engage the practitioner in a collegial conversation to determine whether he or she is still interested in privileges that authorize him or her to treat patients on an inpatient basis. If he or she is not interested, discuss alternatives, such as granting the physician membership without privileges or refer-and-follow privileges. During this discussion, hospital and medical staff leaders should provide the practitioner with information to demonstrate his or her clinical activity (volume and scope) at your organization. In short, medical staffs should never automatically process a request for privileges or send a physician a reappointment application.
 

This week’s tip is from Assessing the Competency of Low-Volume Practitioners: Tools and Strategies for OPPE and FPPE Compliance by Mark A. Smith, MD, MBA, CMSL and Sally Pelletier, CPMSM, CPCS, published by HCPro.