I don’t like people touching my things!

   While speaking to a fellow Credentialer today, she mentioned the ‘helpers’ they sometime get when doing their work. I told her what I felt about that. “I don’t like people touching my things!”

   I don’t know the reason, maybe it’s

        1) A deep seated feeling of accomplishment I get, when I finish credentialing a physician, OR

        2) Because I am a giant anal retentive control freak that does not trust anyone else to do things as good as I do.

   OK, I am the second one. While I appreciate the help, and sometimes need it, I still don’t want you touching my things.

   No one does it like me. Dot the I’s cross the t’s, ask the questions I would ask.

   As a matter of fact, I am such a freak about things that I trained EVERYONE that came into our department. Because I wanted everyone to do the things the way I wanted it.  It was a small thing that I had to train everyone who stepped foot on our department. I like things the way I like them. See control freak.

   I thought it was just me, but have found there is a certain kinship with us all. We have to juggle so much, and are afraid we will miss something so important. That I have heard ‘I don’t want you touching my things’

   I am sure there is a support group I can join.

   But not yet!

Ronda

 

 

 

 

 

Recredentialing - Purging

We talked about recredentialing not so long ago and why it is important, now lets talk about some of things you will want to keep.  No doubt you have a folder somewhere for each of your physicians and in those folders some pretty useful information and some pretty un-useful things.  This is a great time to do some house cleaning. 

You are always going to want to keep ahold of the original application even if they fill out a new one.  It’s a good way to make sure that everything matches the info he or she origianlly gave you (i.e. Social Security Number, birth date, license numbers…etc…).  Also hold onto all reference letters.   You will also want to hold onto all copies of diplomas and training certificates.  Life certiciations (ATLS, ACLS, etc, ) expire usually every 2 to 4 years so make sure they have given the newest certification.  CME expires every 2 years too, so if it’s older, it’s worthless and you can toss it.   Don’t hold onto fax cover sheets and confirmations, they just take up space.  Use common sense, if it doesn’t need to be there, get rid of it. 

Enjoy the purging process and Happy Re-credentialing!

Michelle

 

Everyone Lost

I have wanted to write this segment for awhile, and have been putting it off.  I don’t really know how to approach this topic without my personal feelings coming in to the mix. But I am a person.

As a Credentialer, I didn’t make the big decisions. I brought the facts of  a physician I found to others (that made more money than I) to make the hard choices. I was grateful for it. If it was the wrong choice I would feel less guilty, but amazingly enough that was never that case. I always felt there was more I should have done.  If I had only done this, or maybe checked that again, the outcome would have been different.  I should have felt better knowing that the blame would not rest at my feet but it never helped. I have always felt there was something more I could have done.

What if you did all you could but the information you received was a lie? Would that make it easier? Would I feel less guilty? If I had dug deeper, not trusted the verifications I’d received?  Maybe if I asked three times for the truth, they would have given it to me. What about those people who told you the lie? The Physicians who wrote you “Glowing letters of Reference” for a Provider they fired because of a Drug Problem. What happened to “Do no harm” does that only apply to your direct patients? What about the Hospital; that thought I would see a GIANT RED FLAG when they replied to my Verification letter with an form letter that stated “Due to the volume of our requests”…? 

I have Credentialed hundreds of Physicians, and for every two of them I received a letter that started “Due to the volume of our requests”.  Am I the only one who didn’t know this was a red flag until the Kadlec case? I thought they were just being lazy. (To be fair, one person for every thousand letters is not lazy, it’s over worked) Someone actually thought this letter up, such a fast way to dispense the verification requests.  The funniest thing is, if you dare send the same letter to a place that ‘SENT’ you one of these, they get huffy. “It’s against our bylaws” or “we have certain standards”

What happens when the powers that be decide to let it be someone else’s problem? They took a big gamble and everybody lost. A Doctor lost a license. A hospital and two Physicians’ reputations have been tarnished if not ruined and all of them have all been sued millions of dollars.  But more importantly a woman lost her life.  A family lost their mother.

It’s the court case of the century.

Before it was a court case, it was a lie! I wonder if the physicians thought ‘it’s a small lie, he’ll be fine’ or the hospital just figured they didn’t have to say anything because ‘he just doesn’t work here anymore’.

Were they hoping that one another would say something they themselves were to spineless to say?  Or did they work together to market this lie, to get him away from their loved ones, to make it someone else’s problem?

I don’t know.

Let me know what you think

Ronda

 

Red Flag, Part 4

Licensing Exam – Taken more than once or took longer than 7 years to complete all steps

      I am only going to brush on this one. I will go into more detail into the different Licensing exams there are later.

Were looking at how many times a Physician took an exam not what exam they took. If a physician step more than once, or how long it took between steps. Different states have rules on how many times a physician can take an exam, and how much time has elapsed from the first exam to the final exam.

Took more than 3 tries on each step or they took longer than 7 years to complete all the Licensing exams.

        - It could be that the Physician is a bad test taker.

        - It could be their not a very good Physician

Failing a Step or Level of a licensing exam can cause havoc with time lines for graduating Medical School or finishing Residency.

 

 

Red Flag, Part 3

This weeks “Red Flag” is – Name Irregularities

 

This can happen for both female and male providers. Some popular reasons for name changes are

-          Marriage

-          Divorce

-          Change of religion

-          Stolen Identity

      A while back, I had a Physician coming out of her residency; she had her identity stolen in her Internship year. Let’s say her name was “Sandy”.  She changed the last letter of her first name from a “Y” to an “I”. So that the school knew that any verification request that was about “Sandy” was a fraudulent one. I admired the way the physician handled it. She changed everything. Drivers License, SS#, Diplomas. She had documentation for everything ready when we asked.

     

When I was graduating from high school, administrators asked us to fill out a form with the name that was to be on our diploma. A friend of mine thought it would be great if his read, “Sir Kenneth”. To say the least his parents were not amused, he thought no harm no foul, But then again he didn’t become a Doctor.    

 

I had a physician who had a very hard to pronounce name. The Physician took his last name and split it into three parts. So he could use that as his name. A year later he figured that was not working, and took the last part of the last name and split into three again. When everything was said and done, every document had a different name. He did not legally change his name. He just changed his name, only later did he find that was a VERY bad idea.