Credentialing of clinicians | Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care

Credentialing by health service organisations is a process used to verify the qualifications and experience of a clinician to determine their ability to provide safe, high quality health care services within a specific health care setting and role.

Credentialing has the potential to improve safety for patients by ensuring clinicians practice within the bounds of their training and competency, and within the capacity of the service in which they are working.

Credentialing is part of a wider organisational quality and risk-management system designed primarily to protect patients.

The term credentialing is used by some professional associations and groups in a different way to describe clinicians with higher levels of skills and experience.

Credentialing in Australia

In 2015, the Commission released Credentialing health practitioners and defining their scope of clinical practice – A guide for managers and practitioners. The aim of this guide is to support health service organisations conduct robust credentialling processes. This guide, along with the Standard for Credentialling and Defining the Scope of Clinical Practice: a national standard for credentialling and defining the scope of clinical practice of medical practitioners, for use in public and private hospitals are currently being updated. Public consultation on the revised draft documents is expected by mid-2022.

Credentialing health practitioners and defining their scope of clinical practice: A guide for managers and practitioners

2015

Guide, user guide or guidelines

The purpose of this guide is to provide practical guidance for managers and practitioners responsible for credentialing, and for determining and managing, a health practitioner’s scope of clinical practice. This is an ancillary guide only. It does not replace or supersede state, territory or organisational policies on credentialing.

Standard for Credentialling and Defining the Scope of Clinical Practice

2004

Publication, report or update

A National Standard for credentialling and defining the scope of clinical practice of medical practitioners, for use in public and private hospitals

Review by Peers - A guide for professional, clinical and administrative processes (PDF 1174 KB) was developed by the Commission in 2010. This 'how to' guide will assist managers and clinicians maximise the effectiveness of peer review.