Online Verification of Physician Board Certification Helps Simplify and Facilitate the Process of Granting, Maintaining Hospital Privileges

The verification of physician board certification credentials no longer is a clerical roadblock to the granting of hospital privileges, or to maintaining those privileges. Information that once might have required weeks for an administrator to check now is available quickly and easily online, usually through dedicated portals found on the websites of the major multi-specialty board certification bodies. Neither the general public nor hospital officials need ever feel dissuaded from checking a physician’s certification credentials simply because of inconvenience.

Board Certification Is a Mark of Talent, Dedication, and Skill

Why is accurate, expeditious verification of physician board certification important for hospital officials? Because many hospital credentialing bodies include board certification as an eligibility requirement for staff membership and/or hospital privileges. Organizations that rate the quality of hospitals often report the percentage of board certified staff members as evidence of superior quality. This information also is sometimes used as part of a marketing campaign or in advertising. The more important it has become over the years to hire and retain board certified physicians, the more vital it is to have ready access to accurate, updated data about who is board certified.

Verifying a Physician’s Board Certification Status With the ABPS Is Easy

The American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS) offers credentialing officials a simple and extremely accessible Online Verification Database for the purposes of quickly acquiring primary sourced verification of a physician’s board certification credentials. This system is useful for verification the credentials of applicants, as well as for checking the certification status of current physician employees. The first time you visit the database, you’ll be required to create a user account for your organization. On future visits, however, you’ll need to enter only your username and password to log in. Once inside the database, you can search for physicians using last name, first name, and UPIN (unique physician identification number). A limited amount of physician information will be available before you purchase the profile to help you confirm that you have found the correct physician. Each full profile costs $40 and will be billed to the credit card associated with the user account.

Patients Have a Way of Confirming a Physician’s Certification

In addition, the ABPS maintains a Public Confirmation Database accessible free of charge by members of the general public who wish to confirm that a particular physician has achieved and maintains board certification in a specialty or specialties. Public users receive a scaled-down version of the in-depth Certification Verification Profile available to hospital administrators and other credentialing officials.

For more information about the ABPS verification process, visit the Online Verification Database or contact the ABPS directly. The ABPS is the official board certifying body of the American Association of Physician Specialists, Inc.