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Learn MoreA 130 year old integrated not-for-profit healthcare system throughout Virginia, North Carolina and beyond. Operating more than 300 sites of care, including 12 hospitals, 4 medical groups. Providing care with their 3,800 providers and nearly 30,000 employees.
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.
“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
Paper-based processes:
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.
Delineation of Privileges
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.
Growing Demand for CVO Services
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.
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 CredentialStream® 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.
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:
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.
"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
HealthStream’s learning management system and healthcare training solutions support medical training initiatives and allow for 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 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 & ComplianceBe confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
View All ProductsDevelop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements.
View All ProductsEstablish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development.
View All ProductsUtilize patient access solutions and advanced reimbursement solutions to manage clinical denials and improve your organization’s reimbursement strategy.
View All ReimbursementExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ProductsOur competency development solutions personalize learning for clinicians to bridge the gap between theory and practice for your nurse residents.
View All ProductsEnhance maternal & child nursing care with solutions focused on improving the quality of care for mothers, infants, and children.
View All ProductsAddress staffing orientation challenges to easily achieve and maintain certification with our emergency and acute care training solutions.
View All ProductsAs a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to promoting safer, more successful surgical and sedation outcomes for each and every patient.
View All ProductsOur solutions are designed to cater to the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations dealing with illnesses or chronic conditions.
View All ProductsOnline clinical placement software allows schools, healthcare organizations, and students to seamlessly manage clinical and nursing rotations.
View All ProductsComprehensive, industry-leading provider onboarding and credentialing software that validates health outcomes and supports provider assessment.
View All CredentialingOur affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization.
View All ProductsIntegrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file.
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 workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
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