Robert Campbell, PharmD, director, clinical standards interpretation for hospital/ambulatory programs
Editor’s Note: This blog post is part of The Joint Commission’s daily communication on issues relevant to organizations managing the COVID-19 pandemic. The full list of FAQs is available here. All examples are for illustrative purposes only.
Volunteer Licensed Independent Practitioners (LIPs) who have been granted disaster privileges may continue to provide care, treatment and services under the disaster privileging option (see Emergency Management (EM) standard EM.02.02.13) for the period of time the organization continues to operate under its Emergency Operations Plan (EOP).
Organizations should periodically assess the number and specialty of those volunteer practitioners initially granted disaster privileges to ensure:
- The ongoing needs of the patient population are being met.
- The medical staff can maintain oversight over practitioner performance.
If an important patient care need continues at the time the organization discontinues operation of the EOP, the medical staff could either grant temporary privileges or consider granting full privileges.
NOTE: All credentialing and privileging must be consistent with applicable law, regulation and medical staff requirements.
Additional Resources
FAQ: Emergency Management - Requirements for Granting Privileges During a Disaster
FAQ: Credentialing and Privileging - Temporary Privileges
Robert Campbell, PharmD, is director, Clinical Standards Interpretation Hospital/Ambulatory Programs and director, Medication Management. Prior to these roles, he served as the pharmacist for Clinical Standards Interpretation in the Division of Healthcare Improvement at The Joint Commission. Campbell also surveys as a field representative for The Joint Commission in the Hospital Accreditation and Critical Access Hospital Accreditation Programs and is a reviewer in the Medication Compounding Certification Program. Prior to joining The Joint Commission, Campbell worked in health care organizations and held leadership positions with oversight responsibilities for performance improvement, accreditation readiness, risk management, infection control, medical staff services, as well as inpatient and outpatient pharmacy services.