Tip of the week: Use professional reference questionnaires to make sound credentialing decisions--Free form!

It is more important than ever to create an effective method of capturing performance data that allows the credentials committee and others to make evidence-based credentialing and privileging decisions. However, obtaining more than a neutral letter from an applicant’s previous or current affiliations can be difficult.

A carefully designed, criteria-based reference questionnaire can be one of the most valuable tools in your credentialing and privileging tool box. Visit www.credentialingresourcecenter.com/blog to download a free sample professional reference questionnaire.

One form can capture the information credentialing professionals need from an initial applicant’s past department chairs, postgraduate training directors, and professional references.

When querying reference sources, always include a copy of the privileges the (re)applicant requested at your facility with the reference questionnaire. Ask the reference source to comment on the applicant’s competence to perform all of the privileges requested.

This week’s tip was adapted 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. For more great tips and tools to help you with your low-volume provider conundrum, join HCPro and The Greeley Company for “Low-Volume Providers Workshop: Solutions to Assess Competency and Comply with FPPE and OPPE” on Oct. 19! Purchase both the book and Web cast and get a discount!