Site visits help ensure patient safety and build relationships

Patient safety is job one—for our providers and for all of us at Community Health Plan. That's why we follow the National Commission on Quality Assurance (NCQA) guidelines for conducting on-site visits at clinics and associate provider practices.

Our credentialing team visits all of the primary care, OB/GYN, and high-volume behavioral health providers in our network. We visit at the time of initial credentialing and again whenever a provider opens a new practice location. These site visits are not audits. Rather, they are an opportunity for us to see firsthand where our members get their care. The visits help ensure that all of our providers apply the same standards and protocols, which helps make our network more efficient. The visits also enable us to build valuable working relationships with providers and their staffs.

We recently expanded the criteria we use when measuring safety during site visits. Among the factors we now look at are the accessibility and appearance of the clinic; environmental safety; appointment availability and office wait times; the format of medical records; on-site provider credentialing; and written protocols for office policies and procedures.

We appreciate the time and energy our providers and their staffs invest in helping us meet our mutual goal of creating the best possible experience for our members.

For more information about site visits or our patient safety criteria, please call (800) 440-1561 and ask for our credentialing department..