Credentialing is the intake, vetting, and adjudication of professionals to check education, licensing, certifications, etc. These artifacts are attached to a person through a case and once adjudicated, afford the employee or contractor certain privileges (e.g. patient care, medical practice, information security, law enforcement, etc.). Credentialing activity reviews occur initially during the onboarding process, but continuous evaluation occurs throughout the professional’s tenure at an agency.

Why do agencies struggle with onboarding medical professionals and efficiently processing credentialing, privileging, and enrollment tasks required to provide patient care? In addition to the separate workflow mentioned above, processes are often manual and include cross-departmental touchpoints and approvals. Limited automation and the ability to measure fulfillment progress throughout the process negatively impacts the overall new hire experience, credentialing compliance, speed to mission, etc.

A modern credential management process should:

• Eliminate all (or nearly all) paper forms from the process.
• Automate a wide range of credentialing tasks.
• Quickly validate credentials and assess qualifications.
• Track deadlines and renewal requirements for various licenses, certificates, and other requirements.
• Help the organization remain in compliance with industry credentialing regulations and requirements.
• House large volumes of credential holder data in a centralized, secure, and searchable form.
• Decrease the time it takes to get an employee (or contractor) credentialed, provisioned, and working.

A ServiceNow based case management solution is a flexible construct that can be configured to manage credentials as easy as background investigations, adjudications, and clearances without having to use a separate software application. Using ServiceNow allows agencies to seamlessly integrate credential management workflows with other employee services such as Onboarding, IT account & equipment provisioning, Talent Development (especially the capture and reporting on Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits), Performance Management, and Exit Clearance workflows results in an end-to-end integrated process for employees and contractors.

From a compliance perspective, the implementation on a common platform provides process standardization, ensures alignment with agency policy and federal health care regulations, provides robust logging and audit capabilities, and makes reporting significantly easier. With experience in many forms of case management (including credentialing case management), we are uniquely positioned to help agencies implement both solutions.

Contact us at info@chainbridgesolutions.com to learn more about our approach to credential management.