Working as a credential verification specialist is very rewarding.
Cindy Carrol is a former verifications manager in Naples, Florida. She
equates it with detective work.
"Though each appointment has specific requirements as far as licensure
needed, each case is different," she says. "New employees provide the paperwork
requested by personnel, and [it was] my job to ensure it is all there, is
accurate, authentic and current."
Analyzing and ensuring credentials is the part of the job that Mark Sumner
finds most rewarding. "I would encourage others to become involved in this
field because it offers a variety of different legal and risk management issues
one can get involved with," he says.
Sumner is the credentials coordinator at a hospital. He says legal studies,
database management and public speaking courses are good for anyone interested
in this career.
He feels that "tracking down missing documentation within a physician's
file" is one of the most frustrating aspects of his job because "this can
be very time-consuming." But the end result is worth the aggravation.
"Being able to properly credential several physicians within the hospital
so that they may treat patients is most rewarding," he says.
Carrol agrees. "It's like building a puzzle. Certain pieces need to
be in each clinician's folder. If something is missing, I enjoy tracking
it down. Sometimes it is very difficult, with several phone calls necessary
to get what I need. But in the end, all the pieces are in place and yet another
person is ready...to join the clinical staff," she says.
"If a physician does not provide us with all the necessary documentation
to be properly processed as a new staff member," says Sumner, "he or she will
be notified that his or her file will be put on hold until the missing items
have been received."
Thus, missing information is often produced quickly.
In many ways, the job is similar to that of a personnel clerk. That's
according to Carol Berguson. She is a personnel management specialist at the
Veterans Administration Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Credential verification specialists work with personnel clerks to process
a new employee. Once all the documentation is in place and everything is verified,
the personnel clerk completes the paperwork for the employee to join the clinical
staff.
"A major difference between the two positions is in maintaining the credentials
files," says Berguson. "Since credentials need to be renewed, it is one of
the jobs of the credential verification specialist to review and verify that
all credentials are renewed or updated as needed."
Computer databases can prompt you to remind you when reviews are due. But
they don't necessarily help with finding updated documents. This is the
part that Carrol says she enjoys least about the job.
"Working on a case-by-case basis for initial appointment is one thing.
It feels like detective work and the end result is so rewarding when someone
is hired," she says.
"But the thought of combing through files to see which pieces are missing
is a monotonous task. It's like having built a puzzle, only to discover
months later that someone has stolen a piece here and a piece there. Now you
have the trouble of trying to fit in replacements."
The process of verifying credentials is repetitive. But Sumner cautions
against turning it into assembly line work. "When you keep each case separate,
you'll find the work quite interesting and very rewarding," he says.
"Each case is as unique as each individual is unique," says Carrol. "When
you see each file as a real person, the work becomes important. I want to
learn the story each set of documents describes to me. This is how I look
at the update work. It helps me get through it."
To keep up with the workload, Sumner offers this advice: "Stick to your
agenda as much as possible. If you are interrupted too many times, you'll
get behind in your work rather quickly."
Carrol adds that being well organized and using bullet lists of things
to do or points to cover during the many phone calls she makes allows her
to keep up with the heavy processing of credentials files.
A credential verification specialist, adds Sumner, must be very tactful
and diplomatic when requesting missing licensing information from physicians
and clinical staff. This can be especially important when a department head
or supervisor calls wondering what the hold up is with his new physician coming
on board.
"If you enjoy working with people, like to talk on the phone or in person
and are well organized, you'll love this job," says Carrol.