Tip of the week: Make your active category specialty specific

When defining whether a physician has enough clinical activity to qualify for the active category of medical staff membership, one size does not fit all. Sam Furci, MPA, principal at Furci Associates, recommends visiting specialty medical board websites to see how many patient contacts the boards believe are necessary for a physician to maintain competence. The medical staff must also debate what defines a patient contact. A consult counts, but does a referral? The answer will be different for each specialty. For example, for a cardiologist, admitting a patient to the hospital is a patient contact, but that definition doesn’t work for an ED physician who treats patients before they are admitted.

This week’s tip is from Medical Staff Briefings, HCPro’s monthly newsletter for medical staff leaders.