According to the "National Standard for
Credentialing and Defining the Scope of Clinical Practice for
Medical Practitioners", credentialing is defined as, "the formal
process used to verify the qualifications, experience and
professional standing of medical practitioners for the purpose of
forming a view about their competence, performance and professional
suitability to provide safe, high quality health care services
within specific organisational environments."
It is important that you and your practice staff
are appropriately credentialed and have a defined scope of practice
or clinical privileges that are consistent with the national
standard.
Improving your practice
Privileging and credentialing should be thought of as a process
for the initial granting or approval of clinical privileges for all
health care professionals and the ongoing re-validation and review
of those clinical privileges.
All new and existing clinical staff employed in the practice
should be appropriately qualified and experienced to perform their
role, and should be able to provide evidence of the same.
- All relevant clinical staff associated with the practice,
including but not limited to, medical and nursing staff, should
undergo an initial and ongoing credentialing and privileging
process in accordance with the National Guidelines for Credentials
and Clinical Privileges prior to employment and at least
annually.
- All staff associated with the practice will be appropriately
qualified by having an acceptable level of knowledge, skills,
attitudes and competence consistent with standards established by
their registering professional body (or equivalent), and are
currently practicing safely.
- The credentialing and privileging process will consider
previous and ongoing performance and reflect on the constraints and
supports imposed by the available resources, including staff,
equipment and physical resources available within the
practice.
- All staff will be required to provide evidence of their
qualifications regularly, including registration and/or equivalent
training, experience and current competence in the delivery of
professional health care services for which clinical privileges are
requested, as per state and national requirements.
- The initial and ongoing process should be documented. It is the
responsibility of the practice to keep the record up to date and
treated in a highly confidential manner.
- The process should encompass the National Guidelines for
Credentials and Clinical Privileges, including:
- Definitions
- General principles
- Definitions
- Committees
- Privileges Appeal Tribunal
- Credentialing process
- Duration of clinical privileges
- Review of clinical privileges
- Appeals process
- Termination of clinical privileges
The public register of practitioners available on the AHPRA
website can provide high-level information about the status of all
health practitioners who are registered to practise in Australia.
The register provides information on the specialty of practice that
the practitioner is registered to practice and any endorsements or
conditions on their registration.