Context: The Joint Commission (JC) established new medical staff privileging requirements effective January 2008. The new requirements include the development of ongoing professional practice evaluation (OPPE) and focused professional practice evaluation (FPPE) processes and incorporate the general competencies of patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism and systems-based practice jointly developed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). The College of American Pathologists makes resources available to assist members and their facilities in implementing the new requirements and improving patient care.
Objectives: To review the general requirements for privileging and identify how they may apply to pathologists, to identify currently available activities and metrics that may be useful in addressing these requirements, and to present identified concepts, activities, and metrics for consideration by pathologists and hospitals for their adaptation into the policies and procedures that address the new JC physician privileging requirements.
Design: Review available pathology privileging documentation that addressed the previous JC requirements, review the new requirements, and search for and review available and applicable resources, activities, and metrics.
Results: Common pathology activities and metrics can be incorporated into the privileging processes. Current and new activities and metrics can be incorporated or developed to address the 6 ACGME/ABMS "General Competencies."
Conclusion: Each hospital has unique privileging and physician evaluation requirements. Providing concepts, activities, and metrics for pathologists and hospitals to consider in pathology privileging will help implement the OPPE and FPPE processes and meet medical staff privileging requirements.