Introduction

Credentialing for Excellence

Credentialing for Excellence provides comprehensive training for those involved in all levels of the credentialing process, including medical staff professionals, medical staff leaders, committee members, board members, and legal counsel.

By the end of this seminar, attendees will achieve the skills needed to identify and efficiently and effectively manage issues that can, and often do, arise during the credentialing process. Attendees will also leave the seminar with the appropriate credentialing tools to ensure continued excellence in the provision of care at their institutions. This seminar is designed to be an interactive, engaging, and thought-provoking experience.

Dates and Locations

November 14 - 16, 2024
Caesars Palace
Las Vegas, Nevada

Book using our discounted room rate by clicking HERE.

January 30 - 31, 2025
The Ritz Carlton Amelia Island
Amelia Island, FL

One-and-a-Half-Day Format

Book your room using our discounted room rate by clicking HERE.

March 20 - 22, 2025
Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina
San Diego, CA

Book your room using our discounted room rate by clicking HERE.

Topics

Faculty, Lauren Massucci, Mary Paterni, and Hala Mouzaffar use a unique approach by combining “credentialing lessons” with active participation by attendees in solving challenging credentialing issues.  We will cover the following exercises and topics during the seminar:

Join Our Credentials Committee Meeting
Attendees will participate in a mock meeting of a Credentials Committee in which they will learn how to use a number of credentialing skills and techniques in dealing with scenarios that they are likely to face, including:

  • spotting red flags in an actual application;
  • determining whether an applicant meets threshold eligibility criteria; and
  • reappointing a low/no volume practitioner.

“I Wish I Had Your Bylaws”
If you think that all medical staff bylaws documents are the same, your opinion will most likely change after you join us in playing a thought-provoking game about bylaws in which you see how the bylaws documents of two hospitals match up when put to the test of real-life scenarios.  You will learn that medical staff bylaws documents can be your “best friend” or “worst enemy.” There’s a prize for everyone who plays:  excellent bylaws language that you can take home with you.

Credentialing in an Employment World
The push by hospitals and affiliated entities to employ more physicians can cause headaches for those involved in the credentialing process, especially when employment decisions are made before the credentialing process has even begun.  We’ll offer pointers on how to better align your employment and credentialing process and cover topics that are implicated by credentialing and employment, including sharing information within systems.

Clinical Privileges – Who Can Do What in Your Hospital?
Using interactive case studies, we’ll address difficult to manage clinical privileging issues, including privileges for new procedures, locum tenens privileges, privileges that cross-specialty lines, and telemedicine privileges.

The Ever-Expanding Role of Advanced Practice Providers
Many states have expanded the scope of practice for advanced practice providers (APPs) to include more complicated procedures and more expansive responsibilities. Medical staff and hospital leaders are left with lots of questions: “How much responsibility should APPs be given?” “How much training is required first?” and “How much supervision is appropriate?” We’ll address these questions and provide practical guidance on credentialing APPs and the role of APPs on the medical staff.

Managing Behavior and Health Concerns
With patient safety being paramount in the delivery of care, hospitals often wrestle with how to address disruptive behavior that undermines the culture of safety in their organization and health concerns.  Drawing on decades of experience, we’ll offer our favorite pearls of wisdom and provide advice on how to avoid the perilous pitfalls that lurk behind both the routine and the more exceptional behavioral and health challenges you may face.

Making the Most of References
Speaking with references can uncover invaluable information that isn’t reflected in an applicant’s credentialing file.  We will present best practices for reaching out to peers who provide references.  We will also focus on tools for giving references and managing difficult issues like responding to a reference request when the subject of the request has had a checkered past at your hospital.

Documenting the Credentialing Process
Keeping good minutes for committees involved in credentialing is essential to establishing a record and providing justification for the decisions that are made.  We’ll discuss the “dos and don’ts for meeting minutes.” And, you’ll get a chance to review and revise minutes.

Protecting Your Leaders and Your Organization
The law recognizes the importance of credentialing and provides significant legal protections. We’ll cover the protections available and review recommended best practices in credentialing to help ensure that the legal protections are available to your organization.  You’ll also come away with important language to include in your policies and application forms.

Access to Credentials File
Managing requests from practitioners to view their credentials file can be tricky since the file contains both sensitive and non-sensitive information.  We will provide you with guidelines as to how much information a practitioner should be able to review, where the review should take place and the rules that should apply to the review. 

System Credentialing
Many hospitals are now a part of a healthcare system and looking to coordinate their processes while developing rigorous, consistent standards that are applied across the system.  We will provide you with tips and tools based on our work with health systems across the country in reshaping their credentialing and medical staff processes, such as moving to a system credentials committee.  We will also provide you with policy language to address some of the problems systems face with respect to conflicting recommendations and decisions in credentialing matters.

Who Should Attend

  • Credentials Committee and MEC members
  • Medical Staff Officers
  • CMOs, VPMAs, CEOs
  • Department Chiefs
  • Medical Staff Professionals
  • Management involved in credentialing
  • Board members
  • Medical Staff members who serve on Performance Improvement and Quality Committees

Certification

Educational Intent

Credentialing for Excellence provides comprehensive training for those involved in all levels of the credentialing process, including medical staff professionals, medical staff leaders, committee members, board members, and legal counsel.  Attendees will leave the three-day seminar with the skills and knowledge they need to manage the risks involved in credentialing and to use the credentialing process to establish a highly qualified medical staff that will provide quality patient care.  The seminar is designed to be interactive, engaging and thought-provoking so that attendees will get the most out of their experience.

Faculty, Lauren Massucci, Mary Paterni, and Hala Mouzaffar use a unique approach by combining “credentialing lessons” with active participation by attendees in solving challenging credentialing issues.

Upon completion of this program, participants should be able to:

  • identify legal issues that affect credentialing and should be able to define the benefits of having policies and procedures to address problem practitioners;
  • gain insight into the process and procedure for the credentialing and recredentialing of physicians and allied health professionals.

Continuing Education Credit

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by the University of Pittsburgh and HortySpringer Seminars. The University of Pittsburgh is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

This activity is approved for the following credit:  AMA PRA Category 1 Credit. Other health care professionals will receive a certificate of attendance confirming the number of contact hours commensurate with the extent of participation in this activity.

Category 1 CME Credit

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum of 11.25 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM for the Phoenix and New Orleans locations and a maximum of 9.75 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM for the Amelia Island location. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

NAMSS Accreditation

This course has been approved for National Association of Medical Staff Services (NAMSS) for up to 11 hours of continuing education credit(s) for the Phoenix and New Orleans locations and 9.75 credits for the Amelia Island location. Accreditation of this educational content in no way implies endorsement or sponsorship by NAMSS.

Presenter Disclosure Statement

In accordance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education requirements on disclosure, information about relationships of presenters with commercial interests (if any) will be included in materials distributed at the time of the conference.

All individuals in a position to control the content of this education activity are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with any proprietary entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services, used on, or consumed by, patients.

Seminar Disclaimer

HortySpringer Seminar Disclaimer Statement:

The information presented at these seminars and the supplementary materials provided to registrants are intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing contained therein is to be considered as the rendering of legal advice for specific cases or circumstances. No one should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information presented at these seminars without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer practicing as permitted by applicable laws, regulations or rules of professional conduct. No attorney-client relationship is formed by registration for any seminar or the use of the seminar materials.

Registration

Registration Pricing:
$1,695/attendee

Please note that registration is not guaranteed until payment is received in full.  Past due invoices 60+ are subject to attendee(s) not getting into selected course.

Included With Registration Fee

  • Online Access to forms, policies, procedures, sample bylaws language and more

Hotel Reservations

All registrants are responsible for making their own hotel reservations. Special group room rates have been established for HortySpringer registrants. The special group rate rooms are available until 30 days from the seminar date, or until the room block sells out, whichever comes first.

Refund Policy

If registration is canceled (and notice of the cancellation is received at least 30 days before the seminar), the registration fee will be refunded, minus a $100 per person processing fee.

If cancellation is received less than 30 days before the seminar, the registration fee is nonrefundable, but can be applied to another seminar and location within one year.

With notice, you may substitute registrants at any time.

There will be no credit granted for no-shows at the time of the seminar.