Q&A with Brandi Zevenbergen: How Privilege has Improved with Smart Logic

How CredentialStream is connecting content and data to increase the speed, efficiency, and effectiveness of your privileging process

Rigorously assessing the clinical competency of your caregivers is key to ensuring that competent providers are delivering quality patient care. We recently sat down with Brandi Zevenbergen, Director, Product Management to learn all about the new smart logic feature in Privilege and how it’s helping CredentialStream users increase the speed, efficiency, and effectiveness of their privileging processes.

Tell us more about the new smart logic feature offered in CredentialStream and how it is helping our clients increase efficiencies and improve decision-making.

This new smart logic feature leverages CredentialStream's industry leading content (vContent) and unique curated data sets (vSource tables, VVP, and Insights) to assist in the speed, efficiency, and effectiveness of evaluating data during specific credentialing workflows in real time. This improves clinical and non-clinical decision making, reduces variability, and optimizes patient care delivery.

What inspired this new feature?

The idea for this sort of integration has been years in the making. In 2021, we met with six customers to discuss how we could make more proactive use of the extensive data in CredentialStream. Collectively, we agreed that the privileging process is the most important process in ensuring competent providers are delivering quality patient care, so starting with the Privilege module made sense to all of us.

The first rollout of the new smart logic feature will be in CredentialStream with Privilege, meaning we will be focused on making smart connections between the data that exists in CredentialStream and the data required during the privileging process. These connections will simplify the privileging process for all stakeholders including providers requesting privileges, CredentialStream users who are prepping files for review, and leadership teams making decisions.

How exactly does it work?

The first piece of functionality involves vetting privilege criteria for board certification, education and training. This means once a new applicant completes an application and moves on to request a privilege or group of privileges, the applicant will be reminded of the criteria for the privilege(s).

For example, if a provider requests core privileges in Internal Medicine, they will see that these privileges require Board Certification in Internal Medicine. If they don’t have that Certification entered in CredentialStream, they will be immediately notified. They can then either add the missing information, decide not to request privileges if not qualified, or request an exception. In this case, an exception might be related to a new graduate that just completed residency. They may not have their Board Certification secured yet, but they may still be eligible to request privileges.

What is special about this technology?

We are the first in the industry to be able to deploy this kind of privileging logic. We are able to do this because of the unique content and data within CredentialStream and the underlying architecture of the solution.

What benefits can users expect from this new smart logic Privilege feature in CredentialStream?

First of all, it’s important to note that this unique technology is only available to CredentialStream customers utilizing Privilege. Customers in this category can expect to really streamline their privileging process by cutting out a lot of unnecessary back and forth communication.

Today all the criteria required for privileges is contained on a privileging form, but a provider must really wade through a lot of details. It’s easy to miss something. With the new smart logic within Privilege, as a provider is requesting privileges, CredentialStream is proactively making connections and validating when qualifications are met and flagging when they are not.

For example, a provider might find that they have accidentally omitted to enter a required certification and can make the update immediately rather than submitting an incomplete request and starting a cycle of back-and-forth communication between themselves and the CredentialStream user preparing the request for review.

We are currently focused on proactively making use of the information about a provider’s education, training and other qualifications for privileges that are already contained within CredentialStream as a provider applies for privileges. We also want to assure that privileging criteria, including education, training and board certification, is clearly identified and it is evident to all parties including those applying for privileges, those managing the process, and those who review and grant them so that each party can easily gauge whether or not the required criteria are met.

In general, throughout the entire privileging process, the smart logic feature within Privilege helps to clearly identify privileging criteria and confirm in real time whether or not the required criteria are met for all stakeholders.

How do CredentialStream users get started with this new smart logic feature in Privilege?

Turning on this feature is a simple toggle on or off function for CredentialStream with Privilege users.

What’s next for CredentialStream?

We are continually evaluating new ways to use smart connections within CredentialStream. Right now, we are looking at identifying potential risk for not meeting privilege criteria for clinical activity – meaning evaluating volumes. And, we plan to use smart connections within other areas of CredentialStream like Appoint and Apply.