Credentialing & priviliging
ISSUE SUMMARY
The governing boards of hospitals and other health care facilities, and their medical staffs, have a joint responsibility to ensure that the care delivered within the facility is of high quality. It is understood that according to law, the boards of hospitals and other health care facilities are vested with the ultimate responsibility for such decisions, including decisions relating to credentialing and privileging clinical staff.
In recent years some health care facilities have begun to consider factors other than the clinician’s training and clinical competence in their credentialing and privileging decisions. It is thought that such considerations can interject economic and possibly competitive factors into a decision-making process that more properly should be focused on clinical competence.
ADOPTED ACTION OR POLICY
KMS believes that physician staff membership and other health facility privileging decisions, whether for initial or re-appointment, modification or termination, should be based solely on factors relating to the applicant’s training, experience, clinical competence, state licensure status, and other appropriate matters as required by applicable state or federal laws, rules and regulations.
Adopted by the KMS House of Delegates on May 1, 2010.
