Microhospital credentialing and privileging: Scale down without shirking industry standards

Featuring a handful of inpatient beds and a narrow selection of community-tailored services, microhospitals are seeking to revolution­ize care delivery in cities across the country.

These pint-sized purveyors of targeted interventions have a two-fold appeal: they present healthcare institutions with a low-risk vehicle for expanding or redefining their market presence and tout faster, more accessible care for patients in hubs where sluggish traffic, overcrowd­ing, and limited building options can put traditional hospital services out of comfortable reach.

But despite the burgeoning care model’s promise, its proliferation is outpacing the development of environment-specific regulations. Because microhospitals are currently regarded by CMS, accreditors, and many states as short-stay acute care hospitals, MSPs and medical staff leaders must determine how best to rescale credentialing and privileging processes originally developed for large, full-service facilities.

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