A news-heavy National Hospital Week

May 11-17 is National Hospital Week, celebrating the institutions and their cadre of professionals dedicated to patient care. Hospitals and medical staff services are certainly in the spotlight. In the past week, CMS has finalized CoPs for medical staff structures in hospital systems, governing bodies, and medical staff membership.
 

“The new CMS interpretations ease regulatory burden and permit medical staffs and hospitals to work together to structure their boards and medical staffs in the way that best supports their missions and communities,” wrote American Hospital Association President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock. It will be interesting to see whether other voices in healthcare are as enthusiastic and what questions the new CoPs raise as hospital medical staff leadership and governing bodies move to implement them.

Also in the news, NAMSS has released the Ideal Credentialing Standards (ICS), a list of 13 criteria for establishing an applicant’s qualifications for medical staff membership and clinical privileges. Plans for ICS were announced during the 2013 NAMSS national convention keynote last fall, and introduced at an industry roundtable discussion.

What do these developments mean for your medical staff services department? Let me know at mstevens@hcpro.com. And thanks for reading!

Mary Stevens, managing editor, Credentialing Resource Center Insider