2018 Annual Report on Medical Staff Credentialing

The 2018 Annual Report on Medical Staff Credentialing has been released. The report was published on May 2, 2018 and is the result of a survey conducted of Medical Services Professionals and others responsible for credentialing during December 2017 and January 2018.

Many thanks to VerityStream staff from the Client Success Services and Consulting department, and HealthStream staff Randy Carden, Ed.D., Senior Research Consultant, and Robin Rose, MBA, Vice President, Healthcare Research Group who worked on this report.

Why is this report important?

• The report is important because the credentialing and privileging industry is changing so rapidly that it is difficult to keep up with what is happening “out there” in other organizations. We know that you want to know what other organizations do, how well they do it – and how fast. In other words, you are looking for metrics about turn-around times, staffing, etc. This report provides you with this critical information.
• Secondly, there is a huge lack of available, credible data relating to credentialing. With few exceptions, most data over the years has been mostly anecdotal, based on too few organizations and lacking in some basic research and analytics.
• VerityStream is providing you with a report based on almost 700 responses to a 70+ question survey and the report was researched and analyzed by staff with the appropriate qualifications in research and analytics.
• VerityStream consultants get asked constantly for benchmark data – that is how we are aware of the significant need for this data.
• VerityStream provides software to the credentialing industry and we want to make sure that we are meeting your needs today – and tomorrow.

What data does the report provide?

The report is fairly long, but easy to review (lots of graphs and charts).  You can download it here.

There is a section on the top ten key findings (with comparative information from our last survey, published in 2017). Additionally, there is a section on credentialing metrics, where you will find out what your colleagues are doing in their organization. For example, how long, on average, does it take to perform primary source verification on an initial application? You’ll find that information on page 29. You’ll find out that 18.5% of organizations have standardized their privileges across the health system (that’s on page 27). And there is much more. We hope that you will find this report to be of value and would appreciate any comments you might have about the findings.

And don’t forget – we will be doing this again at the end of 2018 so plan on participating in the next survey if you were unable to do so for this one.