HealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsThe leadership development program from HealthStream helps mold your high-potential healthcare employees into proven leaders.
View All ProductsFulfill compliance requirements with a variety of programs and courseware designed to address critical regulatory requirements as well as educate staff to recognize and mitigate risks.
View All ProductsBy increasing your healthcare staff's focus on quality and safety with HealthStream, they can help to reduce medical errors and readmission rates.
View All ProductsLearn about what HealthStream's healthcare policy management software and how it can help aid your organization efforts.
View All ProductsHealthStream's education helps address diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization, as well as promoting health equity in the communities you serve.
View All ProductsDeliver custom or industry designed product training directly to patient and resident care environments to reinforce proper use.
View All ProductsTeach your healthcare staff about the revenue cycle and claim management through targeted training and video tools from HealthStream.
View All ProductsIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
View All ProductsHealthStream's EMS Program offers a comprehensive, CAPCE accredited EMS course library that meets National Registry annual recertification.
View All ProductsNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
View All ProductsMake sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream leverages medical professional development in healthcare by providing staff training programs
View All ProductsExperience standardized and centralized healthcare credentialing, privileging, and enrollment that is smarter and faster than ever before.
View All ProductsAutomated, web-based provider credentialing and enrollment software for growing medical groups.
View All ProductsNCQA-certified CVO verification services for initial and re-credentialing files in an overflow or full-service capacity for healthcare organizations.
View All ProductsSearch, review, and add providers into the Epic provider master file with our Epic app integration, Provider Validate.
View All ProductsFinally, a comprehensive resource to support collecting, storing, and sharing credentialing data with ease.
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View All ProductsHealthStream’s free nurse schedule app, NurseGrid™, is built to help you care for your staff and engage with their specific needs.
View All ProductsMitigate risk and elevate your quality of care. Improving both clinical and business outcomes starts with a smarter, more integrated approach to regulatory training, continuing education and quality management.
Learn MoreSentara Healthcare is a not-for-profit health system operating 300 sites of care, including 12 hospitals, with 3,800 providers. HealthStream's solution enabled Sentara to standardize their processes, taking everything online for a paperless approach. When faced with COVID-19 and pandemic stresses, Sentara was able to deploy global updates to grant privileges and implement disaster privileges.
For more than 125 years, Sentara has been committed to helping people who want the most dedicated medical professionals helping them through every stage of life. Over the years, they have expanded their offerings and grown as an integrated healthcare system throughout Virginia, North Carolina and beyond. Today, they operate more than 300 sites of care, including 12 hospitals.
Over the past year, Sentara has faced one of its greatest challenges: streamlining processes and reinventing systems in order to deploy caregivers as quickly as possible to where they are most needed. Fortunately, their continual commitment to innovation positioned them to tackle this challenge head on.
In 2011, Sentara determined it was time to upgrade their credentialing and privileging processes. Their operations were being challenged by:
Sentara’s previous credentialing and privileging solution stored data effectively, but the credentialing and privileging process was still paper based, and the paper files were stored electronically. There was no ability to report or manipulate those stored documents.
Each individual medical staff felt strong ownership of their process for evaluating and recommending individual providers to provide specific patient care services within their healthcare facility. This created a cumbersome privileging process for providers, chair, and chiefs and the medical staff professionals who supported them.
As individual medical staff offices within the health system experienced turnover, growth, and other significant business challenges, a preference to centralize credentialing and privileging grew.
Sentara has a long history of focusing on quality and innovation. When the need to upgrade credentialing and privileging processes and grow a true CVO arose, the organization understood evaluating and pursuing new technology would be key to this transformation.
Sentara knew they needed to convert to standardized, paperless processes if their CVO was going to be able to serve multiple hospitals and medical groups, but they determined that bringing all processes online at once wasn’t necessarily the best way to launch. They took a phased approach to conversion and started with the processes that would be easiest to standardize such as initial applications and the reappointment cycle, as these did not require extensive review and approval. From there, they turned their focus on privileging.
"Innovation is part of the culture at Sentara.
When I started there, I knew it was part of my
role to bring innovation to the table."
Paige Martin; Director, Medical Staff Services
On March 11, 2020, COVID-19, was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Two days later, a national emergency was declared in the US. Sentara knew the pandemic would soon strain its resources. The CVO rapidly recommended that the best way for providers to obtain authorization to practice in way that would enable them to meet the demand for increased clinical resources would be the implementation of disaster privileges.
Disaster privileges refer to privileges granted to qualified medical professionals to provide patient care when a major event creates a surge of patients and/or shortage of providers. Disaster privileges are temporary, but they allow privileged providers to care for patients for as long as needed during the course of the event.
Sentara’s CVO worked closely with their board and their medical staff attorney to clarify the specifics of disaster privileging and the operational issues involved. Upon announcing that disaster privileges would be implemented, requests began to pour in. Initially, the CVO received requests via spreadsheets, but that rapidly became too much to manage. Fortunately, Sentara was able to use their HealthStream solution to deploy a global update which granted privileges to any provider who had privileges within the system and allowed them to work outside their specialty as needed. For example, a general surgeon would be allowed to function as a general physician.
Implementing disaster privileges was no easy feat, but Sentara’s medical services professionals didn’t miss a beat, as they transitioned from working onsite to working 100 percent remotely. They had the technology in place to get the job done.
"We aim to convert the distribution of initial
and reappointment letters to an electronic
process. As well, make broader use of the
Provider Assessment Portal. And, perhaps
our biggest initiative ahead, to fully
standardize our privileges through migration to
CredentialStream."
Paige Martin; Director, Medical Staff Services
Sentara is on a mission to improve health every day. They understand that they can’t get there by remaining static. In order to be sure that they can deliver the right care, by the right caregiver, at the right time, place and cost whether they are in the middle of a disaster or not, they will continue to invest in their credentialing and privileging processes. Next up, they plan to:
During her 25+ year tenure, Paige Martin successfully established the organization’s CVO from the ground up. She has great advice for organizations looking to future-proof their privileging.
HealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All Learning & PerformanceHealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsThe leadership development program from HealthStream helps mold your high-potential healthcare employees into proven leaders.
View All ProductsWhen you enact HealthStream's quality compliance solutions, you can do so with the confidence your healthcare organization will meet all standards of care.
View All Quality & ComplianceFulfill compliance requirements with a variety of programs and courseware designed to address critical regulatory requirements as well as educate staff to recognize and mitigate risks.
View All ProductsBy increasing your healthcare staff's focus on quality and safety with HealthStream, they can help to reduce medical errors and readmission rates.
View All ProductsLearn about what HealthStream's healthcare policy management software and how it can help aid your organization efforts.
View All ProductsHealthStream's education helps address diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization, as well as promoting health equity in the communities you serve.
View All ProductsHealthStream offers professional training and education on how to best optimize your reimbursement process within your healthcare organization.
View All ReimbursementTeach your healthcare staff about the revenue cycle and claim management through targeted training and video tools from HealthStream.
View All ProductsLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ResuscitationIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
View All ProductsHealthStream's EMS Program offers a comprehensive, CAPCE accredited EMS course library that meets National Registry annual recertification.
View All ProductsNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
View All ProductsExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentMake sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream leverages medical professional development in healthcare by providing staff training programs
View All ProductsLearn more about HealthStream's Provider Credentialing, privileging, & enrollment solutions.
View All CredentialingExperience standardized and centralized healthcare credentialing, privileging, and enrollment that is smarter and faster than ever before.
View All ProductsAutomated, web-based provider credentialing and enrollment software for growing medical groups.
View All ProductsNCQA-certified CVO verification services for initial and re-credentialing files in an overflow or full-service capacity for healthcare organizations.
View All ProductsSearch, review, and add providers into the Epic provider master file with our Epic app integration, Provider Validate.
View All ProductsMake sure your healthcare staff can schedule out appointments and work schedules with ease using HealthStream's line of software solutions.
View All SchedulingHealthcare scheduling software designed to optimize staffing requirements & elevate patient care
View All ProductsPrecisely align staffing and needed resources to enable efficient patient flow and high-quality, cost-effective patient care.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s free nurse schedule app, NurseGrid™, is built to help you care for your staff and engage with their specific needs.
View All Products