NPDB Insights

Is It Reportable?

A hospital initiated an investigation related to the professional conduct of a physician who held time-limited, nonrenewable, temporary privileges at the hospital. During the investigation, the physician's temporary privileges expired and the hospital took no further action. Should this be reported?

No. Generally, the NPDB makes no distinction between adverse actions taken with respect to temporary or permanent privileges. However, in this case, there was no resignation of privileges while under investigation because the temporary privileges expired and the physician did not have the option of renewing them. This is unlike the typical situation where regular privileges that are renewable expire during an investigation. In that situation, an action to not renew permanent clinical privileges while under investigation for issues related to professional competence or conduct is indeed considered a resignation while under investigation and should be reported.

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Helpful Tips for 2018!

Helpful Tips for 2018 Image Happy New Year, Data Bank administrators! It's the perfect time to review your organization's account and the associated user account(s). These tips will help you get started:

Activate Continuous Query. Stay current with your practitioners by activating Continuous Query. Get your initial query results and free query updates on any new reports for a full year.
Review Continuous Query enrollments. Review, cancel, or edit your enrolled practitioners to ensure they are up-to-date. Enrollments last for one year and can be manually or automatically renewed.
Verify all user accounts. Review your user accounts and delete inactive accounts for employees who no longer work for your organization. You can also add additional roles (administrator, query, report, and billing) to each user account.
Note: You must create a unique NPDB account for every authorized user. Sharing user IDs and/or passwords is a violation of the NPDB's Rules of Behavior.
Update your user account or registration profile. Did your organization's name, address, or tax ID change? Did you change your email address or phone number? You can update this and all other account information at any time.
Review your reports. Review the reports you submitted using the Historical Report Search to ensure your organization met all NPDB reporting requirements.
Reconcile payments. Need receipts to reconcile NPDB charges on credit card and bank statements? Select View Billing History to view your NPDB charge receipts.

Check out the NPDB Help Center for additional assistance.

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Focus on Hospital Attestation

Hospital Image Attestation is our national education and outreach effort to ensure that all eligible entities are meeting their NPDB reporting requirements. During attestation, Data Bank administrators attest that their organization has submitted all reportable actions and medical malpractice payments to the NPDB. Currently state licensing boards and health centers are participating in our attestation initiative. The NPDB will be expanding the attestation process to all registered hospitals.

As part of the registration renewal process that occurs every two years, hospitals will also update their profile and complete their attestation. The hospital profile will clarify to which professions each hospital grants clinical privileges, and whether decision-making (e.g., employment, credentialing, privileging, disciplinary) and NPDB transactions (reporting and querying) are done in-house, or by other organizations on their behalf. Hospitals responsible for making privileging and/or credentialing decisions for other hospitals (or hospital sites) will identify those hospitals (or hospital sites) in their profile and attest on their behalf.

All hospitals renew their registration over the course of two years, and are notified by the NPDB when to renew. The NPDB will send a 60-day reminder email to the Data Bank administrator prior to the hospital's NPDB registration renewal/attestation due date. If your hospital has not received notification, then your renewal is not currently due. Detailed instructions and guidance for attestation will be available when you sign in to renew your NPDB registration.

For additional information, please visit the Hospital page.

(updated 3/9/2018)

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Interested in a NPDB Presentation for Your Organization?

Education Image Is your organization planning a meeting, conference or webinar? The NPDB is eager to speak to your group or organization. Learn about NPDB policy, compliance, attestation, or any other topic. To request an NPDB representative attend and/or speak at your webinar or conference, submit an education request online.