Q. Can Hospital-Based Long Term Care surveyed under the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Long Term Care have a separate medical staff and credentialing and privileging process or must they be integrated with the hospital's medical staff and credentialing and privileging process?
A. The organizations are free to decide whether to have a separate process or whether to integrate with the hospital's medical staff and processes. Whichever approach is selected the approach must meet the intent for the standards in the manual under which the organization is being surveyed (including the role of the LTC Medical Director in the CAMLTC) and when the practitioner is receiving privileges/authorization/clinical responsibilities in multiple settings using a single credentialing and privileging process, it must be clear as to what the practitioner is allowed to do in each setting.