Becker's: 7 Steps to an Efficient, Centralized Credentialing Department

In an article for Becker's Hospital Review, Sarah Pelletier - advisory consultant and chief credentialing officer at the Greeley Company - outlined the seven essential steps to achieving an efficient and effective centralized credentialing department. These seven steps are as follows:

1. Standardize and consolidate: "This means physicians shouldn't have to fill out the same application for multiple hospitals within the same system or send in the same document multiple times."
2. Eliminate duplication: "Every department involved with physician recruitment should be on the same page in terms of what is required of a hire."
3. Establish a single source of truth: "This 'single source of truth' should be one systemwide integrated web-based credentialing software system that facilitates timely communication between recruitment, credentialing and enrollment staff."
4. Create an onboarding team: "Systems need to break down the walls between various functions involved with hiring medical staff and create one onboarding team that meets regularly."
5. Streamline application processes: "Applications, document requests and contracts should be sent in a single envelope to the physician and returned in a single envelope."
6. Use a knowledgeable physician liaison: "This point person can help the physician through the process and can help reduce the number of incomplete applications."
7. Integrate credentialing with provider enrollment: "To get ahead of the game, begin enrolling providers with the system's various public and private payers as early as possible during the credentialing process and seek out delegated credentialing agreements with payers."

For the full article from Becker's, please click here.