Physician Criteria For Privileging

For many years, hospitals throughout the country have granted privileges using so-called laundry lists. Laundry list or privilege list is a detailed checklist that shows procedures and treatments that physicians can request to treat patients or perform these procedures. The American College of Surgeons was the first who recommended laundry lists because many physicians had not finished an approved residency programs in a certain specialty area. The laundry list has gone through modifications but remains in use to the present time.

Nowadays, almost all physicians who apply for privileges have completed a training program and the original use of laundry lists is no longer relevant. However, even though the privileging process is easier now than before, laundry lists are a common approach to the delineation of clinic privileges in many hospitals.

Laundry lists include not only procedures and treatments available at the hospitals, but also criteria that must be met. Thus, physicians check off procedures they would like to be allowed to perform and go through criteria for each procedure. When using the list, physicians don't have to provide documentation of experience and training to show that they are qualified for all privileges. Physicians are allowed to choose which criteria they can meet before applying for privileges.

Those hospitals that don't have laundry lists use criteria-based privileging. It combines predefined criteria with well-defined, realistic privileges. The term core privileges mean clinical activities within a certain specialty that any actively practicing, properly trained physician with good peer recommendations would be able to perform.

At hospitals who use the criteria-based privileging system, those physicians who meet predefines criteria can apply for privileges, and those who proved additional training and experience can apply for noncore privileges. Special privileges almost always correspond to one of the following:
•    volume-sensitive diagnoses
•    new advances in technology
•    high-risk treatments

If a physician meets required criteria to request privileges are supported by references attesting physician's competence, privileges can granted.  If a physician requires additional privileges, a separate verification procedure is required. The same is true for performing unusual treatments and procedures - for example, what would otherwise be a basic procedure, like a surgery, with a robot instead of a doctor require the separate privileging procedure.

Physicians who can't meet predefined criteria in a particular specialty may still be qualified for limited privileges by providing honest evidence that they possess proper training and experience to perform the requested procedures or treatments.  For example, a family physician can apply for a specific set of privileges on the obstetric list, for example, to perform the cesarean section. But to get the privileges, that physician would have to show to the hospital credentialing committee that he/she has required training and experience that is necessary to get privileges and perform cesarean sections.

One of the main advantages to the criteria-based privileging approach is consistency. All physicians are asked to meet the same standards and prove that their education, experience, training, etc., are suitable for the privileges they'd like to get.

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