Federation of State Medical Boards Endorses U.S. House Measure to Expand Residency Training

H.R. 6352 would add 15,000 new residency slots over the next five years to address physician shortage

DALLAS – The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) today strongly endorsed "The Resident Physician Shortage Reduction and Graduate Medical Education Accountability and Transparency Act" (H.R. 6352), proposed legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would create 15,000 new residency training positions in the United States and add much-needed physicians to the nation’s health care workforce.

Read the rest from FSMB here.

Interested in joining a NAMSS-sponsored online community for Managed Care Credentialing professionals?

The National Association Medical Staff Services (NAMSS) is exploring ways to build a new online community for MCO credentialing professional colleagues. Last year, NAMSS organized focus groups to learn more about the needs of the credentialing professional in a managed care or health plan environment. That research told NAMSS that there are not a lot of resources for individuals working in the MCO environment and often times it’s hard to find trusted colleagues to reach out to for advice and mentoring. NAMSS believes a network could help.

The focus groups also found that differences exist between hospital and the managed care environments that need to be considered, such as, a) Joint Commission, HFAP, or DNV accreditation v. NCQA or URAC; b) Differing terminology among environments; and c) Complexity of hospitals overall, as compared to MCOs. Despite this, NAMSS believes that the similarities are stronger than the differences. NAMSS’ goal is to bring together all Medical Services and Credentialing Professionals and provide resources and networking opportunities that aren’t available elsewhere.

If you’d like to be part of a workgroup to share ideas about the best way to build an online community for managed care credentialing professionals, contact NAMSS by sending an email to tboykin@namss.org. There’s no cost, and we promise not to waste your time! NAMSS wants to hear your ideas on how best they can support you.

Get Ready for National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week

This year, we have something very special to help us kick off NAMSS Awareness Week.  NAMSS has produced a video featuring  NAMSS Treasurer, John Pastrano, to help us get the word out about the important role of the MSP.  This video also aligns with NAMSS' plan to roll out a Technology Strategy in 2013.  We hope you will help us spread the word about MSPs and NAMSS Awareness Week by reposting this video on your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages. 

National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week

November 4-10, 2012

In 1992, President George Bush signed Congressional House Joint Resolution #399 proclaiming the first week in November as National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week. Since then, NAMSS has partnered with hospitals, MCOs, doctor’s offices, university health systems, and government agencies to promote awareness of medical services professionals. Join with us as we again celebrate National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week this November 4-10, 2012.

Court: Medical staff bylaws are not contracts between doctors and hospitals

A Minnesota ruling takes away a medical staff’s right to govern itself and make health care decisions that are best for patients, physicians say.

Alicia Gallegos, amednews staff. Oct. 17, 2012.

A judge has ruled in a Minnesota case that medical staff bylaws do not constitute a contract between physicians and hospitals.

The State of Minnesota District Court, 5th Judicial District, County of Lyon, said the creation of bylaws does not include the necessary legal requirements to make the regulations a binding contract. Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center in Marshall, Minn., had the authority to change the hospital’s former medical staff bylaws, and physicians must follow the latest rules, the court said in its Sept. 25 opinion.

Read the rest from amednews.com here.

HealthLeaders Media: Medical Harm Complaint System Could be Quality Data Goldmine

Cheryl Clark, October 18, 2012

 

A first-of-its kind federal pilot project designed to make it easier for patients to directly complain about medical errors, safety issues, and harm may prompt some doctors and hospitals to blanch.

Might it unleash a gripefest about relatively unimportant aspects of care, like the yucky taste of hospital food, the lack of parking, or meandering laments that one got sick in the first place? A rage against the night?

Read more about AHRQ's new database at HealthLeaders Media.

NAHQ Issues a Call to Action: “Safeguarding the Integrity of Healthcare Quality and Safety Systems”

Yesterday, the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) announced a Call to Action to leaders of healthcare organizations to implement protective structures to assure accountability for integrity in quality and safety evaluation as well as comprehensive, transparent, accurate data collection, and reporting to internal and external oversight bodies.   

The National Association Medical Staff Services (NAMSS), under the direction of Kate Conklin, Past President of NAMSS, was one of the organizations with whom NAHQ collaborated to develop these guidelines.  Medical services professionals (MSPs) are often on the front line in ensuring that qualified practitioners are caring for patients.  With the adoption of suggested guidelines and techniques, MSPs are further assured protection as they investigate applicants and oversee ongoing medical staff quality initiatives.  

We applaud NAHQ in their efforts to raise the bar in our healthcare system and we encourage each of you to review this document with your administration.  Let’s partner with NAHQ and other national healthcare professional organizations in the noted article to become agents of change to establish a strong safety culture in each of our organizations.     

Q&A with the Joint Commission *Update*

On Tuesday, October 30, at 2:00pm EDT, Mr. John Herringer, Associate Director, Standards Interpretation Group for the Joint Commission (TJC), will share some great news with us about TJC Standards that are published for this year. 

 

The good news is there are no changes in the medical staff standards.  Instead, Mr. Herringer will devote this webinar on TJC Surveys by responding to our burning questions about TJC and or any of their current standards.  We've already received a lot of great questions, but are still accepting more.  Please submit your questions to:  news@namss.org. 

FSMB: Federation Credentials Verification Service Surpasses 150,000th Physician Portfolio Milestone

Service enhances physician mobility between states by providing lifetime portfolio of primary-source verfied credentials

Dallas, Texas – The Federation Credentials Verification Service (FCVS) recently surpassed a major milestone in the organization’s history – the processing of its 150,000th physician portfolio. A service of the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), the FCVS provides physicians and physician assistants with a lifetime portfolio of primary-source verified credentials.

Read the rest of FSMB's press release here.

amednews.com: ACGME extends accreditation abroad to improve physician training

Officials in Singapore and the Middle East are partnering with the U.S. graduate medical education accrediting body.

Carolyn Krupa, October 1, 2012

For more than three decades, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has evaluated and accredited graduate medical education programs in the U.S. Now it is expanding its reach with an international program aimed at raising GME standards in other countries around the world.

ACGME-International recently completed the first phase of a partnership with the Ministry of Health in Singapore to revamp the GME accreditation system in that country. Meanwhile, the ACGME-I has signed contracts in Qatar and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and is negotiating with officials in Oman, said John Nylen, ACGME-I executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Read the rest at amednews.com.