Synergy - May/June 2014 - 17

cases? Not only do you want to protect
the patients, but you also care about the
physician's welfare.
Health plans have an ongoing monitoring
process established and could utilize the
aspect of ongoing monitoring in between
recredentialing cycles to take appropriate
action. But is it appropriate to wait until a
patient has been harmed? Why not work
with the provider to find ways to continue to
benefit the community (i.e., surgical assisting
instead of being the primary surgeon,
consulting, becoming a medical director, or
mentoring physicians)?
Throughout my research, one of the
interesting items I found was an American
Medical Association joint educational
conference held in June 2013 entitled
"The Aging Physician: Opportunities
and Challenges." I did not attend this
conference, but was able to review the
presentation online and found their slides
informative and their recommendations

insightful. It was also comforting to know
this topic is being discussed and reviewed by
physicians within a larger organization that
reviews the aspect from both the healthcare
side and hospital side.
If you are in a health system with a
hospital that requires physical assessments
of providers over the age of 70, it's likely
these proceduralists would receive the
required assessment via the hospital's aging
physician process, and the provider could
share the results with the health plan. When
I credentialed on the hospital side, I worked
with one of the standards from The Joint
Commission in regards to competency. For
a provider to maintain a privilege within
their specialty, they must be competent and
have performed the procedure during the
prior two years. Provider competency is
not reviewed on the managed care side in
regards to a physician's activity at a hospital,
and we do not inquire if the provider has
met the hospital's established criteria for

those privileges. As credentialers, we believe
the hospital has done their due diligence.
And not all providers practice in a hospital,
the providers who are office-based only will
not have to prove privilege competency, but
rather this is where quality reviews on the
managed care side can be of assistance.
The policy draft I am currently producing
is not only a policy that would involve a
physical assessment of providers around
the age of 70, but the policy may also
be used for providers under the age of
70 when there is reasonable cause for a
physical assessment. I continue to work
with my Credentials Committee on finding
a balance between allowing an aging
provider to continue to practice and
protecting patients. Our goal is not to rule
out physicians based on age alone. We
have had many discussions on this topic
and will continue to work on this issue. It
is not a decision we want to make without
reviewing all options. ■

Answering the call of hospital and medical staff leaders
We're not exactly superheroes. But we help hospitals to confront challenges and achieve excellence
every day. Just a phone call away, we're ready to partner with your forces to tackle whatever you're
facing with efficient, powerful, bullet-proof solutions.

* Cost reduction and
improved margins
* Accreditation and
regulatory compliance

Got compliance concerns? Physician-related problems? Credentialing or quality conundrums?
Call The Greeley Company.

* Physician engagement

What we do

Our work with hospitals nationwide targets both traditional and contemporary challenges in the following
three core areas:
1. Medical Staff Optimization & Physician Alignment
2. Compliance, Accreditation & Quality
3. Credentialing & Privileging

Consulting

Leadership Seminars
& Onsite Education

External
Peer Review

Interim
Staffing

Typical outcomes
* Quality improvement

Outsourcing
Solutions

* Process optimization

888-749-3054
info@greeley.com
www.greeley.com

MAY/JUNE 2014 SYNERGY

http://www.greeley.com http://www.greeley.com

Synergy - May/June 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Synergy - May/June 2014