2026 Trends in Medical Staff Credentialing Transcript

HealthStream’s 2026 Trends in Medical Staff Credentialing Report examines how credentialing practices shape onboarding timelines, revenue readiness, and the overall provider experience. Based on its 10th annual survey, the report highlights how disconnects across the onboarding process, limited insight into financial impact, and persistent staffing constraints contribute to delays that affect both organizational performance and patient access.

During the webinar, HealthStream leaders walk through these findings, focusing on credentialing as one part of a broader onboarding continuum rather than an isolated function. The discussion centers on the need to align recruitment, credentialing, and enrollment workflows, reduce redundant requests to clinicians, and clarify ownership across teams. Presenters also emphasize that, although organizations are putting significant effort into these processes, many do not quantify or communicate their impact — particularly in financial terms — making it harder to gain leadership attention and support.  

The conversation then turns to operational realities and next steps. Ongoing staffing shortages and limited capacity are described as major constraints, reinforcing the need for more standardized, well-defined processes. While tools such as automation, AI, and provider data wallets are discussed as areas of interest, the speakers note that these solutions depend on consistent workflows and reliable data to be effective.  

The overarching message is that organizations that strengthen their processes and data practices — and position credentialing as a visible, measurable function — are better equipped to reduce delays and improve overall performance.

Click here to access the full webinar.

Timestamp Overview  

[00:00:50] Housekeeping and Resources

[00:01:34] Meet the Presenters

[00:02:07] Agenda and Audience Engagement

[00:03:13] Then vs Now Credentialing

[00:04:58] Live Poll and Survey Reach

[00:25:21] AI and Tech in Credentialing

[00:30:31] Process Improvement Priorities

[00:32:10] Streamline Provider Applications

[00:35:37] Provider Wallets Poll

[00:39:19] What Wallets Really Are

[00:47:56] Beyond Counting Files

[00:51:42] Future of Credentialing

[00:53:35] Using the Report to Lead

[00:54:34] Closing

Full Transcription

Disclaimer: This transcription was written by AI, thanks to Descript, and has not been edited for content. 

Welcome and Overview

[00:00:00] Andrea Schmitz: Hello, everyone. Thank you for spending some time with us today for our tenth annual Trends in Medical Staff Credentialing webinar. HealthStream is the leader in healthcare workforce solutions. We help organizations work better by helping their people work smarter. HealthStream provides the leading credentialing, scheduling, learning, and clinical development applications delivered on healthcare's number one platform.

[00:00:31] We streamline everyday tasks while improving performance, engagement, and safety. I'm your host, Andrea Schmitz, Director of Product Marketing at HealthStream, and I will be facilitating today's webinar.  

Housekeeping and Resources

[00:00:50] Andrea Schmitz: Before we begin, let's review a few housekeeping items. At the top of your console are buttons to display or hide the various panels and each panel is resizable and movable. Throughout today's webinar, please use the reaction buttons as I see you all doing right now, great, docked at the bottom of your console to let us know your reaction to the topics discussed. We love that live feedback. We encourage you to check out the additional resources located in the Related Content list on your console.

[00:01:11] This does include your NAM CE certificate for those of you that will need that before you leave today. You can also access your free copy of our 2026 Trends in Medical Staff Credentialing report by clicking the download button on your console. Lastly, we are recording today's webinar. We will send you that link within a few business days.  

Meet the Presenters

[00:01:34] Andrea Schmitz: Alright, we have an exciting presentation for you today, so without further delay, allow me to introduce your HealthStream presenters. We have Divya Shroff, Physician Executive Advisor. We have Tom Heitz, our Senior Consultant. Or I'm sorry, recently Director of HealthStream CVO. Had the wrong in my notes, Tom, sorry. And Meghan Kurtz, Senior Manager of Clinical Solutions. With that, I will hand it off to Tom to kick us off.  

[00:02:03] Thomas Heitz: Thank you so much, Andrea.  

Agenda and Audience Engagement

[00:02:07] Thomas Heitz: Our agenda today is very similar to the agenda for last year. So we're going to start by elevating industry standards, getting to know you, our audience, walk through some of our key survey findings, and then discuss how you can leverage the 2026 Trends in Medical Staff Credentialing report.

[00:02:28] The main goal of its survey, now in its 10th year, is to help elevate medical staff services standards through identifying credentialing trends, providing metrics that can be used to elevate your operations, and to provide organizations with the data needed to help identify new initiatives and strategies. We are encouraging all of our attendees today to submit questions at any time using the Ask Questions box or Q&A box on your attendee console.

[00:02:54] This allows us to address inquiries in real time and ensure that your voice is part of today's discussion. Given the breadth of topics we'll be covering, please also use the Reactions button docked at the bottom of your console to indicate interest in areas where you would like our panel to spend additional time.

Then vs Now Credentialing

[00:03:13] Thomas Heitz: And to kick this off we thought it would be fun to discuss what credentialing was a decade ago versus what it is today. One of the many topics we're going to be talking about today is obviously AI and we did use them to generate these images. So what are some things you guys notice right off the bat that may be right or wrong about these images based on the prompts that we put in?

[00:03:41] I don't know Meghan, Dr. Sharp -- anything you guys would like to share that you see with these images? My own personal favorite is that in 2026, we just had the one box that said, "Provider files," and that is clearly where all of our provider files –

[00:03:56] Divya Shroff: -- lived. I'm not going to lie, until we did this, I forgot about the filing cabinets and the need of my medical staff office directors having to lock and make sure it's all secure. Until we did this exercise and this image it, it brought back a fun memory. And to say that's only been in the last 10 years that filing cabinets were so integral to medical staff operations.

[00:04:20] Meghan Kurtz: And the inbox, and your physical inbox with the papers and the folders everywhere. What's missing in --

[00:04:26] Thomas Heitz: -- the picture. Don't forget about the little red sticky tabs as well to mark --yeah-- your files where providers needed to spend more time.  

[00:04:34] Meghan Kurtz: Where they're everywhere.  

[00:04:34] Divya Shroff: I was thinking the only thing missing is a little cart for that exactly. To take all those files to every physician leader to say, "Hey, you didn't stop by my office. Would you do your work?"

[00:04:47] Thomas Heitz: Hey, I still use that cart, even though we were electronic, to wheel my iPads down to the boardroom, thank you very much.

Live Poll and Survey Reach

[00:04:58] Thomas Heitz: Alright, so let's jump in to our first poll question today. You guys can click directly on your screen, but we are looking to see what perspective brought you to join our webinar today. You can select as many as apply here. So are you looking for a strategic ROI perspective for your facility or health system operations? Are you looking for operational insight for supporting this work/medical staff services? Are you doing day-to-day management of this critical work, or were you just looking for industry perspective and recommendations? And we'll give you guys a few more seconds. We'll try to get to fifty percent of attendees clicking in and providing us with some insight.

[00:05:44] This will help us on our side know why you guys are here and what maybe we should spend a little bit of time on. I see somebody in the comment section said that they love the fax machine in that last photo. I personally love that it was labeled fax because some of our younger medical staff professionals may never have used a fax machine, if they're lucky. Alright, it looks like we are over 50%. Alright. So the main reason it looks like people joined today was industry perspective and recommendations, followed closely by operational insight and day-to-day management of this critical work.

[00:06:33] This slide is really just to illustrate that we had respondents to our survey from across the United States, Puerto Rico, as well as outside of the United States. So it really is thanks to you guys that we have this data and have such a wide breadth of data coming from all over the United States. And with that, I will hand this over to Dr. Shroff to take it into our first key finding today.  

[00:07:00] Divya Shroff: I think this is a really interesting finding because it dovetails beautifully for where we left the survey last year. So one of the questions we, I think, spent a lot of time talking about last year was, are people spending time on onboarding, and then are they tying that story together to revenue? And if we look at how people answered the poll today, only 20% at least indicated that's their why. And so that -- I think that dovetails beautifully into what we're seeing as a trend. While we know the majority of individuals are spending the time and energy on a formal onboarding program, we still haven't hit the 50% threshold on, I think, our teams getting credit on how that ties to the bigger financial picture.

[00:07:46] While that's -- it still is -- it's an increase from the year before, I think there's a lot of great opportunity, and it begs me to question, one, do people recognize that they're doing the work? Are they measuring it? And then are they aligning with the financial impact so that the CFO, their CMO, or whatever dotted line they report to in the C-suite, is giving them value and credit for how important and integral the work is.

[00:08:12] And then to -- then for me, as a former CMO, I wonder is the reason why we're seeing that disconnect while, again, we're doing the work -- does the leadership that, these individuals that they report up to, are they not aware of the importance of the work? Have they not drunk the Kool-Aid, or are they aware but they're not comfortable in advocating for the medical staff services department? I don't know. Because at the end of the day, I see this work as at minimum revenue protecting, but if not, revenue generating. And I really think we've got to tie that story together so that leads into bigger conversations that we're going to see in the study. But, the only way to do that is to tie it back to the money and get a seat at the table. But I don't know, Tom, what do you think? How do we help our individuals get there?  

[00:09:04] Thomas Heitz: Yeah. I definitely think you have to go through the exercise of mapping out your onboarding process, and that really does mean starting at the time the contract was signed or your recruitment team recruited that provider to, alright, when is credentialing done? When is the enrollment done? When can we realistically bill for those providers? We know a lot of medical staff services are interacting with these providers at some point in that process, but who actually is owning that entire process and taking ownership of it? Are we letting various departments do it, or are we saying, "No, we're going to look at this end to end"?

[00:09:41] Because if you haven't gone through that mapping process, it's really hard to know where your delays are, where handoffs are happening that maybe data is being dropped along the way, or more importantly, when is the provider being asked for the same thing multiple times. I know I said that last year as well, but that's a big thing for providers.

[00:10:03] Providers are busy, and ultimately we know the faster we can credential a provider, the faster we can complete enrollment, the faster we can bill for a provider, the fast and faster our patients can get access to the providers. So it really is tied together whether we are working in a silo or working as a full team. And I will push it forward here and let Meghan go into a little bit more of what we found.  

[00:10:29] Meghan Kurtz: Yeah, you're right, Tom. Onboarding definitely works better when it's provider-centric and it's coordinated and seamless for the provider experience. And that's not just for the provider experience. It makes it work faster. We did see that 40% medical staff or credentialing department are actually owning the onboarding process. And that's similar to last year's numbers. But we really want to dive into what exactly is occurring during the onboarding process and not just the touchpoints with medical staff services, not with just enrollment, but what else has to happen.

[00:11:03] The orientation, malpractice insurance, employee health. Are there any faculty appointments that have to happen? So like you said, mapping out exactly every touchpoint for the provider experience along the way to make sure that you can centralize it is really critical.

[00:11:21] Divya Shroff: And I think, Meghan, to what you're saying, the more even demonstrating whether these individual tasks or who owns it, that again, from a leadership perspective, increases your street value to show that you are integral in, in sort of hospital operations. And whether it's -- I think to me it's a two-way street, right?

[00:11:44] It's letting the C-suite know why it's important of what you do, but also for those physicians who may not love, as I think I said it last year, my kids always call this mommy's stinky paperwork, right? But if they see that this ties to their return, whether it's their paycheck, their patient volume, whatever, right?

[00:12:06] Everything you spoke to regarding enrollment, are they going to be more aligned and an ally to you on getting things completed timely versus they don't see what that big picture is of why they should get your work done because it actually behooves them. Does a physician understand then? Are you even in all these little buckets of educating them? Are you making them that aware in that med staff orientation, like why you matter and not just for your existence, but for their existence as well?  

[00:12:37] Thomas Heitz: And I think that also speaks to how long is your organization's orientation or onboarding. A lot of people throw those two terms around as though they are interchangeable. But onboarding, that can be up to a year of getting -- working a physician into your organization. Orientation is usually just a day of paperwork that's not really fun for the people doing it or the people administering the orientation. But obviously, too, if your onboarding for your organization is provider centric, the providers feel supported, they feel like they have what they need, they feel like they know who is that contact.

[00:13:14] I'm going to go to Meghan and I know Meghan is going to know the answer to the question I have or can point me in the right direction. That provider is also now an advocate to other providers for your organization and saying, "Hey, you should come work here. This is a great place to work. It's not like that other crazy facility down the street where everybody's asking me for the same thing." Yeah. So I think it's, it really is looking at that holistic picture of how this impacts the enterprise overall.

[00:13:43] Divya Shroff: Yeah. I think, and I think the more you're connect to it, connected to that, right? If you see the value, right? Their patients are going to be your revenue generator, but it's the providers that are providing the service. If you're connected and seen as a sticky touchpoint or widget, that speaks to you being integral to facility operations, right? And so I agree to back to what Meghan was saying, you got to map it, you got to know it, you got to own it.

[00:14:09] Meghan Kurtz: Yeah. And don't be afraid to take on ownership of things that are, maybe if -- especially if -- you're siloed. If you really want a seat at the table, you need to really be willing to step up and coordinate all of those activities, because that will get you a seat.

[00:14:23] Thomas Heitz: Yep, 100%. I definitely see a comment that somebody has a recruiting team that does the onboarding, and that is fantastic that you have that one touch point for your provider from recruitment all the way through. I'm sure that is a provider satisfier. Absolutely.

[00:14:43] Meghan Kurtz: Alright. So let's talk about – alright, how tech affects -- sorry, Tom.  

[00:14:48] Thomas Heitz: No problem. Let's talk about MSP candidates being in short supply. I am sure we sound like a broken record talking about this. This is something I'm going through at the moment as well with hiring. But we have continued since the pandemic to see very high results as far as medical staff leaders saying they are needing to bring new staff in, and then on top of that, finding the stolen staff.

[00:15:16] I think we all know that mental checklist that we're looking for when we're scanning these resumes. Does the person have credentialing experience or enrollment experience, or the experience that we're looking for? Are they certified? But once you yes or no those few questions, it then really becomes about looking at what else the candidate can bring or how can you grow the candidate.

[00:15:40] I mean, I worked in research before I entered this field. I didn't have credentialing experience, but I had a lot of transferable skills that I learned while doing research that I was able to apply to credentialing. And I think that goes to, one of the things we've talked about, Meghan, which is looking at those soft skills, and you were having to do that, even a decade ago just as we are today and identifying what you can do to bring people in and grow them when the people that we're looking for aren't necessarily out there.

[00:16:15] Meghan Kurtz: Yeah, there at least --yeah, sorry. No, go ahead. I was going to say at least, they're, they might not -- they might be out there, but we just can't find --

[00:16:23] Andrea Schmitz: -- them. We're not looking in the right places.  

[00:16:25] Divya Shroff: True. I think, and I was going to say you both have lived this role in various organizations. And I think about what the -- whoever put in the comment that recruitment's doing their onboarding, right? But look at the survey question. How many people had to recruit, right? We're all recruiters in our own way, right? So while the recruiters might be doing onboarding at that individual's comment, how are you recruiting people who, whether, to your point, Tom, have the soft skills, have the transferable skills, or at minimum have the credentialing requirements?

[00:17:01] But to me, it's in this day and age when we have people who are maybe shying away from healthcare for a variety of reasons, or I think I saw a comment someone said about are people going to go for certifications now with AI. How do you make this subject something that someone's passionate about, that they see either a lifelong career, whether they see it as an entry level, a stepping stone into overall larger hospital organizations or healthcare organization.

[00:17:34] I think I said this last year. I would love to hear of a success story of someone who started in the credentialing space who becomes CEO of a healthcare system or a hospital. Because I see it. If you have the skills that you're working with one of, your most integral talented pools, you're able to bring them to the table, you're able to get them to buy in, they're able to do, right? You're able to groom physician leadership, all of those things. There's no reason that is running an operational department that you couldn't use this as a gateway. And is that an opportunity to recruit people, or are we thinking about that? Are external organizations like NAM thinking about how do we attract people to this profession?

[00:18:17] Or are larger health systems thinking about is this like an entryway of getting talent? Are they creating just the same way you're starting to see outside of even nursing, like nursing residencies, but you're starting to see some healthcare organizations saying, "Hey, we've got to grow other talent." Is that conversation happening within your organization? If it's not, how do you start to plant the seed and demonstrate that this is, A, an invaluable part of the organization, and you need HR, you need leadership development, you need those kind of or other parts of your organizations to help, shine a spotlight on the importance of this work? So I don't know, Meghan, Tom, what do you think to what I'm saying?

[00:19:02] Meghan Kurtz: I think it makes sense. No, I agree. Yeah. I always say it's medical staff services awareness week in November, not just appreciation week. It is that, that hidden gem of a career that a lot of a lot of people aren't aware of. And I agree, we definitely need career paths not just filling a seat in the office, not just to -- you know, having that career ladder I think is critical into growing your staff.

[00:19:27] Thomas Heitz: Yep, and I think there's two great comments I see in the Q&A box. One is making sure your recruiting team at your facility understands credentialing so they actually know what you're looking for. Especially today, I think that's probably even more important with the ATS systems that they're using to weed out resumes and everything like that. I think making sure the systems that are arguably AI are looking for the right things and not rejecting the people that you would actually want to interview is a great first step. And then the other comment was about potentially overlooking people who aren't certified, who have been in this industry for a really long time, and I think that's another great point.

[00:20:07] I think for those that are out there hiring it, one of the questions we always ask if somebody isn't certified is, "Is that something that you are interested in doing and making this a career? And if it is, okay, how can I help support you in that goal?" Because we all know it takes time and money to become certified, so how can you support your staff in achieving it and making sure they have the time to study? They have what they need and really get them to where they want to go because it benefits you, and obviously, Dr. Sharf, that feeds into your larger vision of how people can continue to grow and move within their organization. The other thing that comes to my mind, I think we all know medical staff offices are running very lean these days.

[00:20:53] We have just enough people to complete our task. So the moment somebody's out on FMLA or somebody decides to move on to another role, you are trying to push a boulder up a hill because you barely had enough people to complete all of your tasks to begin with.

[00:21:11] And we do see that in the survey that, the number one thing that medical staff leadership identified was that staffing, of the overall number of staff, is really limiting kind of things that they want to do within their organization. It is the number one obstacle to pretty much all the impediments that we ask. So it goes back to, how do you find that balance of, working your files, but then also having time to take on these larger projects that, really will give you a seat at the table and shine on your office. I don't know, Meghan, Dr. Sharf, if there's anything you would add to that, but these big initiatives are really where, to me, there's opportunity for MSPs to grow way beyond just, a credentialing position.

[00:21:55] Meghan Kurtz: And that, that's the kind of the catch-22. You're understaffed, so you can't get to these initiatives such as improving your overall process, improving your turnaround times being central to the provider data management portion of it or even standardizing and optimizing.

[00:22:13] We see tons of organizations every day consolidating and merging. And how do you make -- how do you streamline that when you're just trying to stay above water? So it is critical that you try to make some time to, to make a case for all of these initiatives and to get these kind of at least rolling because I think that once you get started, you can even make the case and start putting a dollar amount to you're not just overhead, you're, like you said, revenue protecting, revenue generating.

[00:22:44] Divya Shroff: Yeah. And I almost wonder, right? So I think everyone needs to do an analysis of their organization, right? I'm just looking at some of the comments. Someone said, "We're only paying $23 an hour," right? So like for that individual it could be, okay, not knowing your market or the competitors or whatever, is it, is that a strategic conversation with HR and your CFO or again, your one-up or all the way to whatever C-suite person of, let's look at what the asks are of the role, right? This slide shows how many things are maybe out there where you have to have someone who's tech savvy. They're-- you're also asking to do things like onboarding/orientation. Tom, like I love, like your point about those are two distinct differences.

[00:23:28] Whatever it is are we looking at those factors and are we marketing for the right individual? And or if, let's just say you've hit a flat overhead and this is what the market rate's going to be regardless, because of internal pressures or not, how do you incentivize and create other tangible benefits, whether it's as an organization, we're going to support someone getting their certification, right? That becomes an organizational spend. Is it allowing people to attend either local conferences or national conferences just to better understand? Or is it also being a gateway to other maybe organized leadership development programs, that already exist in your organization, but saying, "Hey, we're not going to overlook people who enter the organization this way"?

[00:24:14] I think that it's got to be such a nuanced sweet spot conversation, which I would challenge anyone who especially is in a leadership role in the medical staff office is you've got to get comfortable in understanding, A, your organization. Are you recognized even at a directoral level along with nursing colleagues, OR colleagues?

[00:24:33] Like where are you falling that you're getting to hear what the organizational message is? What the headwinds are, where the focus is. How do you then take those bullet points and tie them back to what you're doing to either accomplish that goal of the health system or what you could do that is a big ask of your CEO or whatever. And how do you start to navigate that conversation and start using terms like business case? "Hey, let me make a business case that ties into what you're trying to achieve as your larger goal that actually pays it back into my organization, but that pays it forward", right? Like it's starting to, I think, talk that way that allows hopefully to address that staffing constraint and also helping you find the right talent.

AI and Tech in Credentialing

[00:25:21] Thomas Heitz: And I think that leads us into technology. But before I let Meghan kick that off, there is a really great question in the chat. Do we think AI will eventually replace MSPs or credentialing specialists? I'm going to say absolutely not. We do not think that. Yes, it may replace certain things that are done today, but I personally think it is going to push our career more into an analyst role.

[00:25:46] Because regardless of what AI can go out and grab and bring back, we all know when you have a provider, John Smith or any provider with a common name, you often get things back that aren't correct. Somebody is still going to have to analyze and look at that data, and I think it's probably going to be even more important to oversee and look and make sure it's correct.

[00:26:08] You guys saw the picture we had at the start that kind of showed AI is getting there we're not really ready to fully trust it for everything. I don't know if there's anything you guys would like to add before we move along, but --  

[00:26:22] Meghan Kurtz: No, I agree. But, you should also not be afraid of it of not just AI, but technology in general. So you know, even back to this the staffing shortages, make sure that you're still staying on top of like industry best standards and, be flexible. Maybe move some roles around so that, if you're having a difficult time filling a certain position maybe take a look at that position and see if there's something that you could do with the responsibilities that might be, make it more interesting and for candidates.  

[00:26:55] Divya Shroff: I think, to me AI if -- like you said, and I think somebody said in the -- or a couple of people are saying in the chats you need to embrace it, but because otherwise AI is garbage in, garbage out. Where I think the MSP world has the ability to differentiate themselves is to show that higher level.

[00:27:14] Like great, you have taken away hopefully some of the baseline tasks, but now let me show you that higher level thinking of where the sophistication and the nuance exists, right? Because we all know AI, to our picture, is garbage in, garbage out. I don't know if anyone noticed, but the way AI did the picture of the mouse, it was on the keyboard, right? You need, and no one on this webinar knows this, but we did, when we did round one, like it was even more garbled, right? So there is -- you have to understand AI, but then you also have to differentiate where the human factor of AI comes in. I think with AI currently being the hot trend, to Meghan's point, that's the current tech conversation.

[00:27:59] If you show you're a tech Luddite, you're almost out of being at the seat at the table. At least if you show you're willing to embrace it and then have an elevated conversation – yeah--  I think then at least your opinion is going to be valued. You're showing you're embracing it. You're not a naysayer, but you're bringing up healthy components of where the human factor comes in.  

[00:28:26] Thomas Heitz: Yeah, there's a comment in here that kind of really gets to this, I think, question about whether AI can make up some of these staffing gaps, but that their credentialing department is being downsized, and their leadership is indicating it's because you're getting automation.

[00:28:43] So in theory, that is speeding things up. But we know from all those initiatives, whether it's standardizing your privileges, standardizing your process, or I'm just going to say, AI doesn't fix bad data, it scales it. So if your credentialing data is not clean, AI is going to expose that and make it a much bigger problem.

[00:29:04] So I think that's where kind of to Dr. Shroff, your point, and Meghan, that's where we really have to make sure we're in the room, we're having the conversation, and we're talking about what we need people for and what we still need to do. Because AI or automation is not going to fix all the issues and allow us to run a credentialing team of three people and have credentialed providers.  

[00:29:28] Meghan Kurtz: And you still have standards that you have to adhere to, especially like NCQA, that you have to -- it wants documentation that you looked at, the verifications, that you reviewed them. So yep,  I don't think that's something that AI can replace.

[00:29:42] Thomas Heitz: 100%.  

[00:29:44] Divya Shroff: Yeah. Somebody  said it well here. I'm looking at one of the comments, right? They said that "AI will allow us to focus on the big rocks and not the mundane work." I can't agree with that point more. I think in a lot of places where if people don't understand the nuances of this specialty, they, if they only think it is truly a box check of credentialing and just a checkbox of doing privileging, this is your chance to show the other issues. There's so much here that I think elevates the skill set of what maybe today is not understood.  

[00:30:27] Meghan Kurtz: Yeah.

Process Improvement Priorities

[00:30:31] Meghan Kurtz: So this next slide, what is the most important process improvement initiatives in the last 12 months for medical staff services in your organization? And of course, at 41%, reducing initial and re-credentialing timeframes. Of course implementing online applications. You know, things that I would expect but I just would advise that if you're trying to go electronic, make sure that you're cleaning up your processes and that you're analyzing every step.  

[00:31:00] You cannot just build your manual process into an electronic process without it feeling off, I guess is the best way I can come up with that. So you want to make sure that your processes are good before you make them electronic. You want to make sure that your data is clean, especially if you're going to implement AI for, to assist in some of these because like you said it, bad data is amplified with AI.

[00:31:27] Thomas Heitz: Yep, and I think too, if we're looking at reducing initial credentialing timeframes, that goes back to our very first topic, onboarding. If you're only looking at your piece, the credentialing piece, great, we can get a provider privileges maybe in two weeks, but that doesn't help if they're not enrolled and we can't bill for them or all the other pieces aren't aligned and complete. Yeah. So I think it's, again, like looking at the full process start to finish because automation's not going to speed that up. I can't control how long it takes a provider to submit their application.  

[00:32:03] Meghan Kurtz: No. But you can automate some reminders and -- but there's another aspect of it when we just say take a look at everything.

Streamline Provider Applications

[00:32:10] Meghan Kurtz: You need to get really granular, and you need to be critical of even your own processes. So I've seen customers, they're like, "I -- now I have an electronic process and I -- or electronic application -- and I'm still not getting it turned in on time." It's because you built your paper application into an electronic version of it. So they still have 20 forms to sign. So you really want to take a very close look at what you're asking the provider to do and get -- not, I don't want to say creative, but really be open to making it as streamlined as possible. Do you need them to sign 20 forms, or can you just have them check off a box for those attestations that you need to get?

[00:32:50] Divya Shroff: Yeah. And I would say Meghan, to that, like I think as we're all getting used to inside and outside of healthcare AI, everyone is looking for a little bit of that easy button, right? Yeah. So to your point, you take a bad process and electronicize it. In the same way, are you asking a provider to fill out something in this, whatever, maybe in multiple forms because that was your paper process, but even more, is a provider going to start going “wait a second, you can get this without even asking me," right?

[00:33:19] And I think it's going to lead to our next finding, but before we get there, I guess what I would, just to go back to, I hope our listeners are hearing, like there is a somewhat of a theme I think that's coming out of this talk, right? It's you got to be at the table. And so whether you're at the table because it's for recruitment and making the business case, or you've got to be at the table on finding the right tech solutions, 'cause they're coming whether you like it or not, right?

[00:33:45] You have to be at the table. Because if you're not at the table, then it's going to be put upon you. People are going to make assumptions about your work, whether it's a reduction in staffing because they've invested in technology solution that they've agreed and signed off for and have funded that actually doesn't make sense and has bad data and all that.

[00:34:06] But all of those things then become cleanup problems that, sure, you can be on the sidelines going, "Gosh I could have told you that," or all of that. But if you're at the table, you're in it for the right reason, you're making your organization healthier, you're seen as a credible leader. And I just, I hope people see that it's so important to be at the table, and figure out how to get to the table, whether it's, again, working with your one up or the one --just to show the value of what you do.  

[00:34:34] Thomas Heitz: But I think, Meghan, you hit on a great point there about getting creative with your process. And yes, you can automate something, but I think that's a great call-out because just because you can automate something, say, a reminder, we could send the reminder the provider a reminder every day to say, "Do your application." We can do that. Should we? Probably not. And that's where your judgment as an MSP is coming into play. It's why you're so important. AI can just say, "Yeah, let's just send those emails out until that provider responds," but that provider has stopped reading your emails because they, you are just spamming them. You're --

[00:35:09] Divya Shroff: -- now --  

[00:35:09] Thomas Heitz: -- going to spam. So --  

[00:35:10] Divya Shroff: Yep.  

[00:35:11] Thomas Heitz: Yep.  

[00:35:13] Divya Shroff: Which, again, is where I think provider wallets come in, right? Like, how do you make the email they read critical versus other things? But --  

[00:35:23] Thomas Heitz: Indeed. Yeah.  

Provider Wallets Poll

[00:35:37] Thomas Heitz: So that takes us to our next poll question for you guys. Has your organization turnaround time improved since accepting data from a provider wallet or portfolio if you are already using that technology? So we have a fun few fun responses here that you can click on.

[00:35:41] We're out of survival mode and into productivity mode. Not perfect, but definitely less circling back energy. No change. We're tracking progress in vibes only. That's my personal favorite. And not applicable or unsure. Maybe you're not doing that. So we'll be interested to see how many of you guys are adopting this technology. I think it is something we've been hearing about for a few years now, and it feels much like AI. This is also a new fun and hot topic in credentialing. Alright.

[00:36:16] Don't worry everybody, it's going to solve all our problems. Go ahead, Dr. Shroff.  

[00:36:20] Divya Shroff: I've seen while we're waiting, I've heard -- I've seen a couple comments of people saying, "How do we get connected to that executive leadership," right? It's been asked a couple of different ways. And I will say this: when I became a CMO over a decade ago, I had no knowledge of really what a medical staff officer-- sure, I'd done the credentialing paperwork but I was fortunate and I didn't even have a medical staff officer at the time, but I had some just credentialing specialists who just by me spending time with them, and some of it was forced upon me, that I got to understand.

[00:36:59] But I think what I would say to anyone asking that question is thinking, again, back to how do you show that you either are revenue protection for your organization or revenue generating business case. Those are the ways that I think people will take heed to your work. And if those are at least things that you can think about, I would do.

[00:37:21] Meghan Kurtz: Yeah. And you have to start measuring it. Yeah. You don't, you know, if you're not measuring your turnaround times or your satisfaction and how that ties into dollar amounts I think you're missing opportunity to make a good case for your department.  

[00:37:36] Thomas Heitz: 100%. Alright, so results of our survey.

[00:37:39] It looks like obviously, not applicable or unsure was probably the winner, which is what we expected. Yeah. This is a newer technology. But it is interesting that we're getting not perfect, but definitely less circling back energy, and I think that's what we would expect as a new technology is being implemented.

[00:37:56] But it does look like from almost 5% respondents, it's definitely helped them, and then a little more than 5% if you're tracking progress in vibes only I'm going to probably assume that's made your process worse, definitely not better. But hopefully you can laugh about it.

[00:38:17] And that rolls us into our kind of next key finding about how what we're seeing based on people that are implementing provider portfolios or wallets is that it doesn't necessarily ensure streamlined credentialing data or better credentialing data. I'll kick it over to you, Meghan or Dr. Shroff, if you'd like to kick us off on this. I know, Meghan, you have some very good thoughts on this. Sure. About to call you out.  

[00:38:45] Meghan Kurtz: No. I think wallets are an exciting, or have been for the -- because we've been talking about them for a few years now. It's an exciting idea, having one place to be able to import the provider information. I'm just not, especially from our poll, it doesn't sound like this is getting widely adopted. So how much of a real benefit are you seeing? Because we're still seeing customers or respondents saying that their applications are not 100% complete when they get them.  

[00:39:18] Divya Shroff: I almost wonder if there's --

What Wallets Really Are

[00:39:19] Divya Shroff: Yeah, should we clarify what we're saying then? Yeah, that's what --

[00:39:21] Thomas Heitz: I was going to -- that's what I was just about to do. So I, we see a couple chats about “what do you mean by wallet?” So the idea of a provider wallet is that a provider, in theory, owns their credentialing data. So the provider could have a wallet that basically has, their up-to-date CV, all of their state licenses, their malpractice insurance, maybe case logs.

[00:39:44] But basically every piece of information or the majority of pieces of information that you need to credential a provider at your organization. So in theory, when I show up and I am at Provider Heights and I'm like, "I would like to be credentialed at your organization. Here's my wallet." I'm giving you everything you need to get me credentialed much faster than would happen otherwise.

[00:40:07] But I think that kind of, and I see a comment that I was going to take the words out of my mouth. CAQH really was the originator of this idea. And it is a great idea, but it's been around for a while and I think one of the things we talk about, and, I'd be curious to hear what Dr. Shroff thinks, but obviously providers are busy. If they're traveling across state lines or through multiple states working a lot of organizations for better or worse, are they going to be able to keep their wallet up to date, or is this kind of just pushing that burden onto them and then we're still getting out-of-date information in the medical staff office?

[00:40:48] Divya Shroff: So many questions on that, right? So I think -- so first one, right? I think of, to me, when I think of provider wallet, I think about providers now being like our patients, who when they go into any doctor's office or hospital and are asked to fill out the same forms and they're going, "Wait a second, you've already asked me this. Like, how come you're not building the system smarter," right? So if we put in this case the provider in the middle and say, "How do we design a better system," right? That allows them, again, to do the phrase that my children use, stinky paperwork, easier and better, and allow me to do what I actually went to medical school for.

[00:41:24] I think that's the inherent vision of a wallet. To your question, I do think there's some complex issues, which is why we're not yet where we think we should be with wallets, right? How do you keep them up to date? Is it a push or pull, right? By saying is it a push, that you have the ownership as a provider or your delegate to keep it updated. Now you've just created inherent risk. Is it a pull, that it's pulling from somewhere that you're not aware of? And then that goes back to, is the data bad or is the data good, and who's validating it? And is that one more step that again, we're creating inherent risk that someone's going to check on, right?

[00:42:03] It's I think everybody wants this magically to be better, and I think when I think about the concept of wallet, I think it's a little bit of where we were with EMR, is like going back to that image of '16. Let's go back to 2010. We all had this vision when we pushed out meaningful use that everyone would have everything digitized on medical records.

[00:42:24] But now we've created these silos of, okay, if you're in Epic at a singular hospital system, that's your medical record there, but that doesn't work with the Epic that may be deployed by somebody else. And yeah, I think that's part of the challenge is have we designed it today just the same way, have EMRs been what we wanted it to be today? I think we're starting to get there with EMRs, but look at how we're now 16 years plus in that journey. Yeah. And --  

[00:42:58] Thomas Heitz: There's some good comments in here, too, about how do these wallets talk to your credentialing platform, and that is a very valid point. Obviously, there would need to be some type of integration in order for those two pieces of information to talk and to do that push or pull, like Dr. Shroff alluded to. And then somebody else asked how many are there. We asked that same question actually, and tried to get to an answer. And I'll just say 20 plus. So there's a lot of different companies out there trying to get this idea off the ground. But I think that then also fragments people into different groups and providers into different groups using different wallets. And it's probably not realistic for every software to have 20 plus integrations.  

[00:43:47] Divya Shroff: That's --

[00:43:47] Thomas Heitz: -- exactly right.  

[00:43:50] Divya Shroff: And I think I love -- someone made a comment of "When should the wallet start?" And they actually commented that should be a residency fellowship. I'm just going to say now that I was at a medical school, I would actually challenge it starts there, right? With the goal of if you start that journey at the initial point, where not only is that where the data collection starts, where it's purest, and then obviously builds into residency and beyond. I think it's a great opportunity for getting medical students to understand why this body of work is important, right?

[00:44:26] This is when they're sponges and they're learning anatomy and physiology and every subspecialty. But learning what actually helps them have a long career it's important to, I think, highlight this work, and that's something I will share with you at the medical school I'm at. That's what we're talking about, imparting that knowledge to them to pay attention to this part of the organization as well.

[00:44:51] Thomas Heitz: It's almost like it needs to come with their diploma. So it's "Congratulations, you've graduated. You've passed medical school. Now, here's your wallet, and we validated your education for you." Yes. "Start it right there. Take it with you to every organization you go to." And our survey did ask for those that have implemented this technology, what is your primary motivation?

[00:45:12] And again, we see that shortening credentialing timeframes. And it makes sense because if we can easily get everything from a provider that we need to credential them, that is going to make our job a lot faster and easier versus, going back and forth and requesting additional things.  

[00:45:29] Divya Shroff: Especially, I would say to those on the chat who are asking like, what is it? I think as we're seeing a true shift in healthcare with a lot more “-ists,” hospitalists, locums. Those kind of components which have significant impact on credentialing and privileging, right? If we're talking about turnaround times and shortening it, if you've got someone who's got a thicker file where you need to validate a lot more data to what you said earlier, Tom, across state lines, like this is where you can conceptualize the ease that helps the MSPs.

[00:46:06] And for those who aren't seeing it, is this a way again to show that you're an informed leader by asking questions? If you're looking at a bottleneck or a pain point with, let's say, locums or something like that is there a way that you can start asking questions with tech as a solution? Still got to make a business case for how you're going to pay for the tech, but at least showing that you're thinking ahead.

[00:46:35] Meghan Kurtz: Yeah, I think, I think the variety is what would be concerning to me, because you need to make sure that it is a faster turnaround time so that you can easily import the data. And like you said, Tom, with the integrations you don't want to be integrated with 20 different platforms. So I think it's, I think it's a good step in the right direction. I just don't think that we've nailed it or at least it hasn't proliferated to, into the industry as much as I would have expected a couple years ago.  

[00:47:06] Thomas Heitz: I'd also be curious to know how it aligns with -- there's a lot of states that have a uniform state application. Are they being aligned to those applications or other things?

[00:47:16] Because that's also part of this, there are certain states that require certain questions or certain data that, in theory, could be captured in a wallet if I'm, going from organization to organization within that state and I'm doing that same exact application at multiple health systems. You would think this is an area that could potentially help with that. Certainly one to watch. Okay.  

[00:47:44] Meghan Kurtz: Yeah, and I see some comments in here about, yes, but we still have to verify these licenses. Absolutely.  

[00:47:49] Thomas Heitz: Yep.

[00:47:54] Andrea Schmitz: Alright.  

Beyond Counting Files

[00:47:56] Thomas Heitz: Alright, we have landed at our final topic today. This year we asked a new question that was looking at the number of files people were working. And we really just landed on, based on the data we got, obviously files, and I think we've shown that here today, are not reflective of everything you guys are doing as MSPs. And if that really is how your leadership is looking at things I would strongly advocate for you to try to change that as best you can. We've listed a few of the things off to the side here that you guys are doing, but it's just, it's well beyond, initial and reappointment files and, mid-cycle increase or, whatever it may be.

[00:48:40] Divya Shroff: I have --  I say this all the time. I, as CMO, of an 800-bed hospital, I had a right hand that was my medical staff officer director, my left hand was the quality leader. Those two needed to be beyond connected because people need to understand it's not HR light, right? It's not just validation of who's coming to your hospital.

[00:49:03] There's so much more. There is the better you do at the front end, you have less quality, potential bad outcomes with quality. It decreases your organizational risk, and it's like to me, those three individuals have to be so connected. It leads to your hospital brand. It leads to, people wanting to work there.

[00:49:26] There's so many whys of recognizing that it's not just file completion, and I looked to my -- my many medical staff office directors is how knowledgeable and what sages they were on either understanding how different providers, what made them tick, what we need to look out as pitfalls for how to make sure we didn't have any organizational risk.  

[00:49:50] I just, I hope people are able to make that awareness to their leader of just how they're tied to quality and good patient care.  

[00:50:01] Thomas Heitz: Yep. I think back to my time in the office and full days where I didn't touch a file because there were yeah, so many other things going on that day that I didn't even do that.

[00:50:11] Meghan Kurtz: Yeah. There could be bylaws issues or, any issue that could pop up at any time. You also have to help, a lot of meeting coordination with the departments and the various committees. So there's definitely much more than just initial and reappointments in the medical staff office.

[00:50:28] Divya Shroff: Grooming future CMOs. You make that ally there, you're grooming your future physician leaders, yeah. Good --

[00:50:35] Andrea Schmitz: -- point.  

[00:50:35] Divya Shroff: I got you, you got --

[00:50:37] Andrea Schmitz: -- me.  

[00:50:38] Thomas Heitz: Yep.  

[00:50:39] Andrea Schmitz: Yep. There, there's a lot to it. Hey, we --

[00:50:40] Thomas Heitz: -- always look for the person that was like, "Oh, that's a standout on the credentials committee. Okay, we're going to move them to the quality committee. Alright, they're doing good there. Guess what? You, we're now asking you to be chair of the medical staff and chair MEC."  

[00:50:54] Divya Shroff: Yeah. But I think, I think too I really value that this is something we call out in the survey is, when people download the report, when they look at this talk, I think if your organization doesn't see that, this is the best part, I hope, that someone says about a third-party report. It's indication hopefully for what you know you're doing, and then to take it as a talking point like, "Look, it's not just coming from me, "this is an industry standard of the value we're doing. Are you recognizing the percentage of my day, month or year that I'm spending on other things that are so important?"

[00:51:39] Thomas Heitz: Yep.

Future of Credentialing

[00:51:42] Thomas Heitz: And that brings us to our final poll question today that is open-ended for you guys to answer. What do you think the biggest changes in medical staff credentialing will be in the next 10 years? So looking ahead to 2036 what do you guys think it'll be? We're going to make another word cloud like we did last year with all your responses. So we will be very interested to see what you guys add here, and you can just type that right into the screen.  

[00:52:14] Meghan Kurtz: I'll tell you while we're waiting, I can remember back when I was in the medical staff office, hearing rumors about some platforms that would go out and get your verifications for you and bring them back, and it just sounded so magical and futuristic. I was like, "What?"  

[00:52:32] Thomas Heitz: Oh. It is crazy to think how -- I remember when I first started 10 years ago, we were still on paper, and all the paper files that you would print out on your desk that were, like, this big, and you would have to carry those to credential and sign an initial and date every single page to ensure that you looked at it.

[00:52:52] Andrea Schmitz: Yep.  

[00:52:55] Divya Shroff: I think about how much I didn't understand the complexity of privileging, right? And I think we're seeing more of different specialties with technology advancing. I'm -- now, I'm not talking about technology in the computer space, but just in patient care component, where now different specialties can offer the same sort of medical care. Okay, how do you navigate who gets what privilege? There's so many complexities. Yeah, to having someone understand that. It's so critical. Yep.  

[00:53:32] Thomas Heitz: Yeah.  

Using the Report to Lead

[00:53:35] Thomas Heitz: And that brings us to our final slide today. How can you leverage these findings? Consider how these insights can be communicated within your organization, taking into account your culture, mission, and strategic priorities. I would tell anybody who is trying to get this point across to their leadership, in the report now, we do have an executive summary that is just going to be the six findings we went into today. It is one sheet. Email it to your leadership. See if you can do a little teaser, and maybe they'll be interested in the rest of the report that then has all the other data.

[00:54:06] But I would say try to lean on that and Meghan and Dr. Shroff said, “I'm not the only one saying that. Here's three additional people." And we are always happy to talk to them as well. And with that, I will hand it back over to Andrea.

[00:54:25] Andrea Schmitz: Alright.  

Closing  

[00:54:34] Andrea Schmitz: Thank you, Dr. Shroff and Tom and Meghan for that super fun conversation about all the great findings from this year's report. Before we wrap up, I wanted to take a moment just to share that HealthStream is hitting the road this summer. We have some upcoming stops that we wanted to share with you as we finish out May and head into June.

[00:54:45] First, we've got this week, actually, our team is headed out to Long Beach, California for the 55th CAMS conference. We do have two of our team members, as you can see there, Jackie Jones and Mendy Kosinski, that will be hosting a session discussing the differences between virtual reality and augmented reality as it pertains to privileges in the clinical world.

[00:55:09] Next up, we're headed to Oregon for the OHM's conference, and that will finish out May. And then in June, we are headed to Illinois at the IMES conference. And Tom, who you've all heard from today, will also be presenting their Optimizing Provider Onboarding and Creating a Seamless Start for New Clinicians.

[00:55:29] So if you're there, make sure you check that out. And then we'll be closing out with CAMS in Colorado, and we will also be at the AHIP conference if you happen to be with a payer or know a payer who will be at that conference. HealthStream will be there in Vegas, so we would love to see you. Alright.

[00:55:47] Thank you for attending today's webinar. Please take a moment to complete that feedback survey on your way out. We would love to hear from you. In the next few business days, you'll get that follow-up email as well, which will contain that NAMCE as well, but you can also get it there on your console in the Related Content widget.

[00:56:04] And we'll also send you the recording, of course, of today. So thank you again for supporting HealthStream and today's presenters, and have a great rest of your day.