Don't rush credentialing for temporary privileges and locum tenens

Granting temporary privileges and using locum tenens physicians without fully verifying their credentials verification can put healthcare organizations and their patients in danger—clinically and legally. Sally Pelletier, CPMSM, CPCS, advisory consultant and the chief credentialing officer for The Greeley Company, recently discussed the traps organizations can fall into when the credentialing process is rushed.

Q: What are the risks organizations can face if practitioners aren’t credentialed properly?

Pelletier: Overuse or abuse of temporary privileges can cause havoc for the organization. In general, the vast majority of practitioners are competent and there would be no quality issues (if the risk were higher, organizations would not be likely to grant temporary privileges as often as they do); however, the bottom line is that it takes only one bad outcome by a practitioner granted temporary privileges via an abbreviated process to fuel a negligent credentialing lawsuit. Ask any medical staff leader involved in credentialing or any medical services professional and they will emphatically agree that the function and associated tasks of granting temporary privileges and/or locum tenens take additional resources to manage.

Note: Pelletier will co-present the session “Two High-Risk Credentialing Situations to Manage: Temporary and Locum Tenens Privileges” at the 2016 Credentialing Resource Center Symposium held April 7–8 in Orlando, Florida. For more information about the symposium, including the agenda of sessions, or to register, please visit the CRC Symposium event page at www.credentialingresourcecenter.com/events.