How Medical Credentialing Service Works for Locums & Care Facilities

“Quality is never an accident; it always results out of intelligent effort,” says John Ruskin.

And when does quality matter the most? Well, of course, when it is concerns the health care of ourselves and family.

Have you ever wondered who keeps a quality check on doctors and other health care professionals? They indeed acquire their degree after years of hard work and study. But someone practicing in the healthcare field needs to be licensed and registered with the medical authorities. So how do hospitals and healthcare organizations ensure that they are hiring authentic professionals to offer patient care? They need to verify whether they are still updated enough to be hired, treat patients, provide health care, and ensure that they will not harm. It is ethical as well as moral to expect that a person rendering healthcare is competent to do so, not by his/her actions, but by rules and regulations.

How medical locum staff credentialing works

Medical credentialing is a process concerned with step-by-step verification of the qualifications of the health care providers. Medical credentialing organizations shall procure all the educational qualifications and the documents of the health care professional (HCP), verify them with concerned educational institutes and universities; and if found authentic, grant approval to the healthcare professional to practice. Credential Verification Organizations (CVO), like ProLocums, are hired by health care organizations or hospitals to perform this exercise for their medical staff, just to ensure that each HCP is qualified, registered, licensed, and efficient to handle patients’ lives.

Medical credentialing provides the essential quality check to the medical field. The HCPs benefit from them because once approved, they can have unlimited access to all patients. Along the same lines, the hospitals can rest assured that they are hiring the correct personnel for the job on hand. Credentialing is a requirement for HCPs belonging to any field such as physicians, dentists, ophthalmologists, orthopedics, gynecologists, neurosurgeons, and the list goes on. As long as the HCP is going to see patients, he/she shall need to be duly credentialed. And the process is not a one-time exercise, but an ongoing task that needs time-to-time renewal.

Medical locum staff credentialing concerns the process of getting replacements for the existing staff of professionals. If the person replacing the HCP is going to handle patients, he/she also needs to undergo the medical credentialing process. Thus, medical locum staff credentialing stands as important as the credentialing services; because the employed healthcare professionals at hospitals and multi-center institutions continue to switch locations and opportunities during their careers in search of better prospects. Medical credentialing has become the need of the hour for worldwide health care organizations that are maintaining a huge workforce of HCPs on their panels.

The medical locum staff credentialing process usually costs a few hundred dollars to start with. However, the cost is highly variable and changes from one organization to other. Also, once approval is acquired, the subsequent renewals would usually be offered at somewhat discounted rates by most CVOs. The process can be initiated by filling out an online application form followed by submission (uploading) of all essential documents and certifications. The process then spirals down to approving the concerned HCP.

Who needs medical credentialing service?

Medical credentialing services are needed not just by hospitals, but also by facilities and services such as ambulances, home health care services, radiology imaging, emergency centers, laboratory and collection centers, etc. Some of the agencies providing medical credentialing services include the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), TJC (The Joint Commission), NCQA (The National Commission for Quality Assurance), etc. The process needs to be commenced several weeks before the HCP can start treating the patients. The entire process is cloud-based and supported by the latest applications on the systems, keeping it easy to track the status of the application and provide resolution to any troubleshooting.

How ProLocums can simplify the medical credentialing task

With ProLocums, all you need to do is just sign up. Rest everything is handled by ProLocums where the team will ensure all the documents and certifications are stored in one real-time location for faster credentialing. Thus, healthcare facilities can rest assured that they are hiring the right locum professionals for their position.