Revised OPPE and FPPE Standards Driving Surge in Demand for Software as a Service The Joint Commission's Standards Present Challenges To Medical Credentialing
The Joint Commission's revised standards for credentialing and privileging, make automated credentialing software more essential going forward. In today's economy, a full credentialing software package can be expensive. To comply with the Joint Commission's standards, Software as a Service, (SaaS) hosted software, is a cost effective alternative to large spending purchases for hospitals.
Nashua, NH (Vocus) July 9, 2009 –
The Joint Commission’s recently revised standards for credentialing and privileging, effective January 2008, require that hospitals comply with new standards for Ongoing and Focused Professional Practice Evaluations (OPPE and FPPE). “These new requirements establish significant changes in processes for assessing competence at appointment and reappointment,” stated Pamela Brown, MSN, of Pamela Brown Associates LLC. “These processes are directed toward improving the quality and safety of medical care. Concurrently the requirements have significantly increased the workload for medical staff leaders, quality improvement staff and the medical staff office personnel involved in the appointment and privileging processes”. Demand for medical credentialing (http://intellisoftgroup. com) and privileging software necessarily rises when regulatory changes like this occur. “This year, due to the economic downturn, hospital systems are now electing Software as a Service (SaaS), over traditional client-server software installations, with their higher up-front costs, 37% of the time”, according to IntelliSoft Group president, Mike Melville.
Organizations that choose automated credentialing software for their medical staff have two differently priced solutions available in the market: Client-server software that is installed on the user’s computer and shared across a network, or “Software as a Service” (SaaS), which gives access to the same software over the Internet. Typically, client-server software is paid for in full at the time of purchase, and the up-front acquisition cost is a one-time capital expenditure. “Software as a Service” is priced as a monthly access fee, on an ongoing basis. Mike Melville, president of IntelliSoft Group (http://intellisoftgroup. com) stated, “This year, one of every three inquiries begins with Software as a Service, specifically to avoid the inflexibility of capital budgets (pwbi), Software as a Service sales are 19% higher than budgeted through the first 6 months. Customers have been pleased with the SaaS offering, and more are electing to purchase our software in this manner”. Saints Medical Center, a 163 bed medical center located in Lowell, MA, chose SaaS as a cost effective way to add this capacity to their medical staff services.
IntelliCred and IntelliApp medical credentialing and provider enrollment software (http://intellisoftgroup. com) are products of IntelliSoft Group. With customers in the U. S. and Puerto Rico, IntelliSoft Group provides innovative, ongoing information management solutions to healthcare systems, hospitals, managed care organizations, CVO’s, IPA’s and PHO’s. Continually using technology to improve all aspects of credentialing, IntelliSoft Group delivers products and services that exceed our customer’s expectations. For more information, please contact us at 888-634-4464, online at www. intellisoftgroup. com.
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