Credentialing and Privileging Practices at IHS Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Our objective was to determine whether Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital located in Crow Agency, Montana had completed the credentialing, privileging, and personnel suitability reviews for its medical practitioners.  For more than half of the practitioners tested, we found that the hospital did not perform a complete credentialing review or initiate the required personnel suitability review.  The hospital did not verify the credentials of three-quarters of the sampled practitioners before they provided patient care, did not issue current privileges for 20 percent, and did not have information indicating that it had requested background investigations from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for 55 percent of practitioners.

We recommended that IHS direct Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital to: (1) take action necessary to ensure the credentialing and privileging reviews are completed in a timely manner, and (2) initiate the required OPM background investigations for its practitioners.  In written comments, IHS stated that all recommended corrected actions had been taken.