MedCentral

MedCentral was established by the Greater Louisville Medical Society in 1991 to centralize the primary source verification portion of the hospital credentialing process for Greater Louisville area hospitals and ambulatory care centers, eliminating duplicative credentialing for members of the Greater Louisville Medical Society. And other local physicians, nurse practitioners and other care providers who require hospital credentialing. We are the first part of the hospital credentialing process, but do not actually issue hospital privileges. The information we collect is turned over to each requested facility to make their own determination about issuing privileges. Now serving 28 facilities, MedCentral processes over 3,000 files each year.

In 2018, MedCentral began processing files with an online application system, fully digitizing the verifications process to eliminate as much paper waste as possible and to make the process more efficient. Applications are emailed, rather than mailed, to the applicant and can be worked on concurrently by the applicant and their credentialing assistant and can be submitted to MedCentral without the burden of shuffling paper back and forth. Peer reference requests are also sent digitally when possible to ease the administrative burden of an applicant’s peers as well.

What do you verify?
MedCentral provides primary source verification of the following: 

• • Education
    
  • Previous employment
    
  • Previous medical staff appointments
    
  • Licenses
    
  • Board certifications
    
  • AMA and NPDB reports
    
  • DEA certificate and controlled substance registrations
    
  • Teaching appointments
    
  • Competency in training programs
    
  • Peer reference evaluations
    

The application process also collects many of the documents that will be needed in the privileging process, so that the applicant can give them to one source to be disseminated to multiple hospitals. 

Why is this process important?
Through primary source verification, the community is protected from “fake doctors” or other care providers  who include/report false or misleading information on their resume, or purport to hold licenses or education that they did not actually attain. The credentials process verifies that a physician, APRN or other care provider legitimately possesses the qualifications they claim. It is the first line of defense in protecting patient safety.