Peer references at reappointment

Today’s quick tip is from this week’s webcast, Breaking Through Credentialing Misconceptions: Old, New, and Updated Practices, presented by Carol S. Cairns, CPMSM, CPCS. Cairns clarifies acceptable sources for credentials verification, the differences between verifying competency and previous affiliations, and the challenges of verifying professional references. The webcast is now available on-demand here.

During the live Q&A, Cairns fielded a question regarding The Joint Commission’s requirement for peer evaluations of advanced practice professionals (APP) at reappointment. See below for the question and answer:

Is a peer evaluation required at reappointment for APPs, podiatrists?

Cairns: In the past, The Joint Commission had a very tight standard that said peers were defined as peers with the same last licensing initials. They basically said if you were a DPM, you had to have a DPM peer reference, and the same was true with all of the advanced practices. They have gone away from that; at reappointment, they no longer require the peer reference to begin with. So if podiatry falls under the department of surgery, if there is nothing to be gained by getting another podiatrist to provide a peer reference, then no, you do not need to do that.

If a podiatrist is reapplying and they have done sufficient work in your organization to determine a competence level, then you can simply have the department chair—which is probably an MD—of surgery make a recommendation to the credentials committee or medical executive committee.

If however, the podiatrist is a low- or no-volume individual in your organization, and you want to rely on a peer reference that is a podiatrist in your organization—that would be helpful. But frankly, in that instance, I would also want a department chair of surgery from where the podiatrist is practicing to provide that reference as well because the latter is providing it in an official position as department chair.