Are you puzzled over Joint Commission HR 1.20?

Hospitals have traditionally credentialed and privileged, through the medical staff process, all allied health professionals (AHP) who are employed by or connected with the medical staff. Now, The Joint Commission has defined an explicit group of practitioners, including PAs, NPs, CRNAs, and nurse midwives, who must continue to be credentialed and privileged, while the rest must be credentialed according to HR standards.What about the clinical assistants brought in by LIPs?

The Joint Commission requirements regarding licensed independent practitioners (LIP) who bring their employees into the organization are at the crux of the AHP conundrum. These dependent healthcare professionals often provide the same services as employees of the organization, and must be authorized and have their competency addressed in an equivalent manner. But does the MSO know the HR standards for compliance?You could be doing all of the credentialing work but still be out of compliance.

MSPs may do all of the work to credential these clinical assistants yet still fail to meet The Joint Commission's new standards to ensure that practitioners brought into the hospital by LIPs are assessed at a level commensurate to those individuals employed by the hospital.

Learn how your organization can best authorize nonprivileged practitioners and achieve compliance, with"Solving the AHP Conundrum" " How to Comply with HR Standards Related to Nonprivileged Practitioners."Discover cutting-edge methods for managing the shift to HR processes!

This book and CD-ROM set offers a blueprint for hospitals to transition, into the HR authorization path, all of the clinical assistants who no longer need to be credentialed and privileged by the medical staff.Transform privileging methods into competency evaluations.

This resource includes adaptable versions of job descriptions, as well as competence assessment forms, which you can immediately put to use at your facility.Keep up with the changes.

The 2007 Joint Commission Standards represent a major change in the way that MSOs--and now HR--must measure and monitor a large number of non-physician practitioners providing care and services to patients in their facilities. Stay in compliance and manage the changes with the help of these valuable tips and tools.You'll learn how to:

• Identify which individuals belong in the medical staff privileging process and which should be transitioned to the HR authorization process
• Develop and implement a transition plan that is equitable and manageable for both the MSO and HR
• Develop nomenclature for the organization that is more descriptive than the terminology used today
• Ensure that safety and quality of care are upheld when your hospital chooses to transition practitioner authorization to HR

This practical, easy-to-use guide will help MSPs--in collaboration with their HR coworkers--create a workable plan for the transition.Get started with adaptable tools on CD-ROM.

This book's companion CD-ROM includes job descriptions for many of the healthcare professionals being phased out of the MSO path and into the HR path. You can save time by downloading and using these tools as a starting point in your office.Use a proven blueprint for HR success.

You can speed up and smooth out the changeover by following the step-by-step methodology set out in this book.Maintain safety and quality standards at all times.

This book offers a plan to ensure that there is no breach of established safety mechanisms. It covers issues surrounding health screening, background checks, and more, to ensure that patient safety and quality of care is not compromised.Includes over 25 job descriptions and related assessment forms!

Take a look at the step-by-step table of contents:

• Step 1: Recognizing changes in healthcare affecting AHP credentialing
• Step 2: Setting a course for credentialing AHPs
• Step 3: Establishing terminology and definitions for privileged versus nonprivileged AHPs
• Step 4: Understanding The Joint Commission HR standards' effect on nonprivileged AHPs
• Step 5: Designing a new approach to credentialing nonprivileged AHPs
• Step 6: Transitioning to the HR process
• Case studies
• Contributions from the field
  • Scopes of care
  • Policies and procedures
  • Competency assessments
  • Flow charts
  Job descriptionsWho will benefit?

  Medical staff professionals, medical staff leaders, medical staff directors, medical staff coordinators, credentialing specialists, HR directors, and HR staff
  About the Author: Carol S. Cairns, CPMSM, CPCS, has participated in the development of the medical staff services profession for more than 35 years. She is the president of PRO-CON, an Illinois consulting firm specializing in credentialing, privileging, medical staff organization operations, and survey preparation. A senior consultant and frequent presenter with The Greeley Company, Cairns also serves as an information resource for HCPro, Inc. A recognized expert in the field, Cairns is a frequent presenter at healthcare entities as well as state and national seminars.

  Prior to joining The Greeley Company, Cairns held positions as clinical faculty member for The Joint Commission, faculty member for NAMSS, faculty member for the National Committee for Quality Assurance, surveyor in the certification program at the Credentials Verification Organization, and medical staff director and coordinator of services for Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center and Silver Cross Hospital (both in Joliet, IL).