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Blog: Medical Staff Office Survey Includes Impacts of COVID-19 on Credentialing-1135346374

Webinar – Medical staff office survey includes impacts of COVID-19 on credentialing

May 14, 2021
May 14, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit every part of the healthcare industry. Medical staff offices are no exception, from the struggle to credential providers from outside an organization to privileging for telehealth and making it possible for staff to be able to work remotely.

A pandemic era survey about healthcare credentialing

From December 2020 to January 2021, VerityStream surveyed medical staff office professionals in healthcare as part of its fifth annual credentialing report, which incorporates a section on the impact of COVID-19 on credentialing offices and departments across the U.S.

It is likely that the pandemic will forever change credentialing departments and medical staff offices. Organizations that had already implemented software that allowed for electronic credentialing processing were quickly able to transition to remote work. The need for credentialing to be totally electronic became critical – and VerityStream had many requests for assistance to help implement online applications, electronic decision-making processes, etc. that allowed the work of credentialing and the medical staff organization to continue without delays. One of the lessons learned during the pandemic is that healthcare organizations can perform excellent credentialing electronically and efficiently. 

The impact of COVID-19 on credentialing

The arrival of COVID-19 brought a wave of disruptions around the world, particularly in the healthcare industry. VerityStream’s 2021 survey introduced a series of questions directly related to changes that may have occurred during 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

When asked if the location of their workforce was impacted due to COVID-19, the responses were fairly equally distributed. More than one-third either replied all of their workforce became remote, at least for a period of time (37.8%) or part of their workforce became remote (35.9%). More than a quarter (26.3%) reported that COVID had no impact on where their workforce was located. 

Those who reported any part of their workforce became remote due to COVID were asked if they anticipated remaining remote after the pandemic. Nearly three in four (74.5%) anticipated a continuation of remote working, at least partially, even once the pandemic is over. 

Regarding credentialing additional providers to handle pandemic patients, seven in ten (71.8%) survey participants reported these providers were given disaster privileges, nearly half (45.3%) said their providers received temporary privileges, and just over a quarter (28.5%) reported their new providers were fully credentialed. 

These findings represent only a small portion of the survey results presented in VerityStream’s 2021 Annual Report on Medical Staff Credentialing. This year’s report, the fifth installment, is based on a survey of 1000+ medical services professionals and provides insight into the entire medical staff credentialing process. For an overview of the report, register for the upcoming webinar, which will zero in on key findings from the survey regarding process improvement, provider data management, internal resource constraints, and everything in between.

Learn more about the Webinar: 2021 Annual Report on Medical Staff Credentialing.

Date: Thursday, May 13, 2021

Time: 1:00 PM CST