Members Only | 05.30.23
NAMSS Helps Pave Pathway Toward Three-Year Reappointment through Advocacy and Resources
By Molly Ford, MPP
Since 2021, NAMSS has advocated for an industry-wide movement toward three-year reappointment cycles to help streamline and standardize practitioner assessment. NAMSS’ position statement supporting a three-year schedule helped frame its 2021 roundtable, Focused Revision, Moving to a Three-Year Practitioner Reappointment Cycle and Enhancing Continuous Monitoring, where strategic partners discussed the merits of, and roadblocks to, extending reappointment timeframes.
While there was no specific opposition to the three-year reappointment concept, the discussion brought to light the inconsistencies and shortfalls of continuous monitoring across healthcare organizations that an extended reappointment cycle would expose. Recognizing the critical role that MSPs have in quality assessment, the roundtable discussion identified knowledge and operational gaps in continuous monitoring that NAMSS could help address through MSP educational and guidance resources.
In 2022, NAMSS responded to this opportunity with its Quality Toolkit for MSPs, which provides best practices for MSPs responsible for assessing quality, opportunities for MSPs to expand their responsibilities to include quality, and guidance for MSPs seeking to influence quality best practices within their organizations.
Thereafter, NAMSS continued to advocate for three-year reappointment to enable resource-strapped organizations to enhance continuous monitoring by freeing up bandwidth associated with two-year reappointment timeframes. As healthcare organizations continue to face growing bandwidth issues against limited resources, movement toward more effective and streamlined credentialing and privileging processes continues to grow in interest. As the long-time champion for improved credentialing and privileging processes, NAMSS has advocated for three-year reappointment schedules among its strategic partners while providing resources to enable MSPs to take advantage of these revisions.
In November 2022, The Joint Commission (TJC) announced that it would revise its standards to allow for three-year reappointment. Citing the NAMSS 2021 roundtable discussion, TJC revised its standards to align with other accrediting body reappointment timeframes and to allow for enhanced continuous monitoring. While a welcome revision, NAMSS recognized that MSPs would need resources to enable them to implement this revision within their organizations.
Changing organizational policy and process, no matter how small the change, can be complicated. Despite the known long-term benefits of extending reappointment timeframes, NAMSS recognizes that a simple change that requires bylaw revisions is not actually simple. In addition to bylaws revisions, resource re-allocation and restructuring, and general change can be challenging for an overburdened organization to electively pursue.
Working closely with TJC, NAMSS developed its Three-Year Reappointment Resource, which provides step-by-step guidance for extending an organization’s reappointment timeframe, a letter from CMS affirming a three-year reappointment schedule, and a list of all state regulations pertaining to reappointment timeframes. NAMSS’ continues to update this resource as states adjust statutes pertaining to reappointment timeframe requirements.
In late April 2023, NAMSS hosted a Q&A webinar with Robert Campbell, PharmD, TJC’s Clinical Director of Standards Interpretation and Director of Medication Management, to answer MSPs’ questions related to TJC’s reappointment revision. Robert began the webinar by providing additional context for TJC’s revision decision, citing NAMSS’ 2021 roundtable and ensuing advocacy for a three-year reappointment schedule. He then walked through NAMSS’ Three-Year Reappointment resource, citing it as comprehensive guide for anyone seeking to implement a three-year reappointment schedule at a healthcare organization.
Over the course of an hour, Robert answered over 60 questions from MSPs related to three-year reappointment and other TJC standards. The webinar, as well as NAMSS’ Three-Year Reappointment Resource, is available via NAMSS’ website. In light of TJC’s reappointment revision, state statutes requiring two-year reappointment timeframes have begun to change. Since the April webinar, NAMSS has updated the state grid in its reappointment resource twice and will continue to monitor as more states update their policies.
While change can be disruptive, it can also yield long-term benefits that outweigh initial cost and disruption. Reappointment is an example of a short-term disruption that can lead to enhanced continuous monitoring, cost-savings, and MSP growth. NAMSS will continue to work to provide its members with resources, guidance, and encouragement to pursue disruptions that lead to MSP growth, streamlined credentialing and privileging, and increased patient safety.
Check back regularly with NAMSS to stay updated on three-year reappointment resources, as well as additional initiatives to help MSPs lead the way toward a more effective and streamlined credentialing and assessment process.