As the physician shortage continues to grow and as baby boomers continue to consume an increasing amount of health care services, some are predicting that AHPs will become the critical lynchpin for access to health care. But what is their role in an acute care setting?

Many hospitals and medical staffs are still struggling with the rules that apply to AHPs in their facilities. Existing policies often fall short of providing meaningful guidance on the many issues pertaining to AHPs.

Join Susan Lapenta, Lauren Massucci and LeeAnne Mitchell as they discuss a wide variety of issues pertaining to AHPs and the policies that will help you prepare for their growing presence in your facility, including:

• What are AHPs licensed to do? What should you allow them to do in your facility? Who decides? And how?
• Credentialing and recredentialing – Does your process satisfy the Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)?
• Clinical privileges vs. scope of practice – A difference without a distinction? Maybe not.
• Ongoing and focused professional practice evaluations – Are you including AHPs in these Joint Commission required processes?
• Making sense of Joint Commission standards on competency evaluations.
• What rules apply to suspending privileges or investigating concerns about AHPs? Hearing and appeal rights – Is a meeting enough to address adverse actions or is more required?
• The on-call dilemma – Can AHPs help lighten this load?
• Best practices for supervision and collaboration – How close is close enough?
• National Practitioner Data Bank rules pertaining to querying about and reporting adverse actions relating to AHPs
• Countersigning orders and notes – Is that sufficient supervision?