Reliable physicians and capable doctors are integral to the operations of healthcare organizations, providing the professional-level patient care that individuals seek when they’re sick or injured. As a result, ensuring that every health practitioner that steps foot into a hospital to work is qualified is a vital task that every institution must perform.

During tumultuous times in the healthcare industry, verifying qualifications is as essential as ever. However, the laborious and time-consuming process of doing so can be a strain in itself. Thankfully, credentialing management software can streamline this process considerably.

As more industries continue the transition to the digital landscape, their operations have become easier to manage, progress at a more efficient pace, and a multitude of other improvements. Healthcare organizations can take their operations to the next level with credentialing management programs by streamlining their processes. By doing so, their employees will be able to much more efficiently manage their workflow in an overworked and understaffed environment and devote attention to more urgent matters.

Here is an overview of credentialing management software, from what it entails to the countless benefits it brings to healthcare institutions, as well as some frequently asked questions.

What is Credentialing Management Software?

Credentialing in healthcare is vital to ensuring healthcare providers are capable of administering care to patients proficiently. In credentialing, medical facilities verify that individuals have the necessary licenses, education, and experience to practice medicine and offer professional care.

During the verification process, paperwork pertaining to the practitioner’s experience is shared with various entities, such as licensing boards and medical schools, to ensure the documentation is accurate. The procedure generally happens before a physician starts working at a new facility, but it does occur over time to confirm that a provider’s licenses are up to date.

Given how much paperwork must be passed around and how many people must review it, the credentialing process can be a hassle despite its necessity, especially so in overworked environments that have precious little time to spare.

Thankfully, healthcare credentialing management software is designed to help lift the burden off of busy institutions and streamline the process to be easier to manage and far more efficient. Credentialing software provides numerous services to hospitals, and some of their features include:

• Ensuring license verification
• Document and enrollment tracking
• Handling internal privilege forms
• Managing document expiration
• Offering secure databases for essential documents
• Tracking continuing medical education
• And countless other services.

Why Should Organizations Streamline Credentialing Management Software?

Given how vital credentialing is to ensure a healthcare institution’s operations run smoothly and accurately, streamlining the process can assist tremendously. The healthcare industry plays a crucial role in ensuring the public’s health, and facilitating the complicated credentialing process can help take a notable load off their burdened shoulders. Here are some of the many reasons why hospitals should implement healthcare credentialing management programs.

• Keeping all pertinent credentialing information in a centralized storage is not just highly convenient but also incredibly secure. By incorporating healthcare credentialing management software, healthcare professionals will achieve peace of mind knowing their valuable information is safe.
• Credentialing management software is also capable of monitoring continuing medical education certifications for programs like MedTrainer’s courses. It can be time-consuming to keep track of all the CME credits and certifications of a hospital’s physicians, especially if the institution is understaffed, so streamlining the process with a digital program makes CME easier for everyone.
• Another benefit of storing credentialing documents in the same locations is that it can reduce the likelihood of error. Because management software can keep large quantities of data in the same place, it decreases the chance that employees mismanage it. If such mistakes are allowed to occur, they could prove disastrous and time-consuming to address.
• Because the credentialing information is stored in the same accessible cloud storage, it is far easier for employees to make and observe updates, as well as stay up to speed in data management.
• As all the credentialing information is compiled in the same location, the data of various providers can be checked all together instead of individually. This quality allows staff tasked with credentialing to share the information much more easily, creating instant feedback and operating at a notably more efficient pace.

What Benefits Does Streamlined Credentialing Management Bring?

Despite how crucial it is to ensure operations are carried out properly, credentialing in healthcare can be a time-consuming endeavor due to all the paperwork that must be handled. Documentation regarding a healthcare provider’s experience and training must be sent to various individuals for verification and stored for future reference.

However, with the streamlined approach of medical credentialing management software, healthcare institutions can say goodbye to handling the unending stack of physical documentation. Digitalizing the credentialing process has a plethora of benefits, including:

• There are fewer papers and binders to manage, which can be difficult due to how much documentation the credentialing process requires. Additionally, transferring important documents online will free up more space for other things.
• It provides instant access to essential documents and policies in a centralized location, instead of having to spend time searching for them in a filing cabinet, which will save time.
• Updating information on paper requires manual changes, and it can be a hassle even for more minor changes. With digital documents, it does not take a long amount of time to make changes.
• Because all of an organization’s information is digitally stored in a virtual database, it will lower paper usage; beneficial for both the environment and the budget.
• Employees no longer need paper to fill out forms or sign their signatures, as it can all be done virtually.

Streamlining healthcare credentialing also enhances the speed of an organization’s processes. Healthcare institutions suffering from staff shortages will significantly benefit from the improved speed and efficiency provided by credentialing software.

Furthermore, the numerous quality of life features implemented in such programs will help employees stay on track of their goals without skipping a beat. Here are several of the productivity benefits that healthcare credentialing management programs offer:

• There are numerous automation options, such as the peer review process, that can be fully managed by credentialing software. As a result, this frees up more time for staff members to partake in other vital functions.
• Thanks to easy-to-use dashboards, observable credentialing metrics, and better expiration management, the automation of employee workflow will considerably enhance their productivity.
• With automatic expiration reminders, employees will never miss out on key deadlines, license renewal dates, and other vital features so that their productivity is never diminished.
• Employees can compare old and new healthcare standards side by side to better comprehend any alterations made.

Frequently Asked Questions Concerning Credentialing Management

What Customization Options are Available?

Healthcare corporations can create custom reports or utilize pre-existing templates to retrieve useful data, rather than having to run numerous reports to ascertain a particular workflow error manually. Considering how repetitive the credentialing process is, customization is an especially beneficial asset to remove the tediousness.

Where Can Employees Access Credentialing Information?

After uploading documents to cloud-based software, employees can access them on any device. This advantage, in turn, makes credentialing software highly portable and accessible, allowing any qualified individual to view crucial information whenever they need it and wherever they need it.

Will Management Software Reduce Credentialing Negligence?

Patients who experience unjust behavior from an uncredentialed provider can issue a lawsuit against a healthcare organization, costing them both their money and their reputation. However, hospitals can reduce errors with credentialing software because all of a provider’s pertinent information, such as their employment history and records, is only a few clicks away. Further, the expiration notices will help hospitals better manage outdated licenses and swiftly address them.

How Will Credentialing Help Healthcare Patients?

Credentialing ensures that healthcare providers are competent in their services and can adequately adhere to industry standards. As a result, patients can feel reassurance knowing their care is in the hands of reliable individuals. This advantage also benefits a hospital’s reputation, as it shows their healthcare providers have undergone the necessary credentialing steps.

How Does Payer Enrollment Benefit From Credentialing Software?

Payer enrollment applications can take several months to be processed, and given this length, they must be sent out as soon as possible. Additionally, if the application lacks information, no matter how little, it can cause the process to take even more time. However, with credentialing software, the enrollment procedure takes far less time. Hospitals can also track the status of an application, providing real-time updates.

When you choose to incorporate MedTrainer into your healthcare institution’s functions, your team will receive numerous benefits alongside our credentialing management software. We offer compliance programs to help healthcare establishments receive accreditation from the compliance certification board, as well as incident reporting services, SDS management systems, and many more features that benefit healthcare operations. Our products and resources assist numerous healthcare industries, such as community health centers, imaging, and diagnostic centers, pharmacies, mental health and addiction centers, and much more.

If your organization is searching for a credentialing solution, reach out to MedTrainer today to learn more about how our healthcare management software can assist you!