NPDB Insights - November 2018

Is It Reportable?

When a physician surrenders medical staff privileges due to personal reasons, infirmity, or retirement, and such surrender did not occur in order to avoid an investigation nor during an investigation, should it be reported?

No. The surrender should not be reported because the physician did not surrender his clinical privileges while under investigation by a health care entity relating to possible professional incompetence or improper professional conduct, or in return for not conducting such an investigation. However, if an investigation was under way when the physician surrendered his privileges, even if the physician was not aware of the investigation, the surrender would have to be reported even if the physician claimed he surrendered the privileges for unrelated personal reasons.

Updated NPDB Guidebook Released

We recently published an updated NPDB Guidebook, our policy manual used to inform the health care community and others about NPDB requirements as they are established by federal law. The updates expand upon policies for which users requested clarification, but do not modify the underlying policy. The changes include the following:

• A new index to help you find the new and revised tables you're looking for
• New Q&As in Chapter D on Queries and Chapter E on Reports based on real scenarios to help users make querying and reporting decisions
• Three new entries in Chapter E on the basis for action codes, impaired practitioners, and payments for sole shareholder corporations
• A table of figures that guides users to the six new reporting infographics
• An updated cover and a new color scheme

If you have questions regarding the Guidebook, please contact us at NPDBPolicy@hrsa.gov. We welcome your feedback and ideas for how to improve the Guidebook.

National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week

In 1992, President George Bush signed a Congressional House Joint Resolution, proclaiming the first week in November as National Medical Staff Services Awareness Week. Medical services professionals (MSPs) are essential to the NPDB mission, as they are often responsible for both credentialing health care practitioners as well as submitting reports to the NPDB. Patient safety rests on a foundation created by medical services professionals, who diligently perform background checks, credentialing, reviews, and reporting tasks using data maintained by the NPDB. We assist MSPs every day by maintaining the data critical to the medical services mission, and by providing support such as account assistance, training, and user educational information. Assistance also includes the following resources:

• Guides for Interpreting Query Responses and Reports
• Our policy manual, the NPDB Guidebook
• Help Center
• Subject Database
• FAQs

We partner with the health care community in its efforts to provide oversight and assessment of practitioner credentials, which furthers quality health care for all patients.