Effective credentialing is central to the safety and success of any healthcare organization. Given recent headlines about incidents like nursing diploma scams, healthcare leaders have become increasingly aware of the importance of having a strong system in place. 

Even in less sensational scenarios, credential management can become a significant strategic and tactical issue as teams work to comply with complex access requirements, handle quality control, manage storage, and effectively review provider records. What’s more, teams that do seek to modernize tend to find that designing workflows and document retention policies can be a complex process. It’s often hard to know where to start. 

Bozeman Health – A System in Transition 

With locations across southwestern Montana, Bozeman Health manages the credentials for over 1,000 practitioners, including full-time medical staff, locum, telehealth, and independent healthcare providers. With growing demands placed upon medical and administrative teams, the organization needed to transform its operations and ensure it had the required tools to effectively support everyone in its care. 

In addition, the system sought to complete a number of other strategic projects, including updates to existing credentialing policies, the implementation of new bylaws, and the alignment of medical staff services with quality and safety departments. In order to achieve its vision of performance excellence, Bozeman Health realized its current infrastructure would need a significant upgrade—and after careful review, the credentialing process seemed like a natural place to start. 

The existing process relied heavily upon manual workflows, paper forms, and in-person provider signatures, creating excess work and logistics for medical and administrative staff. While exploring solutions within the RLDatix ecosystem, Bozeman Health identified an opportunity to partner with the company to bring their credentialing online and make it easier for everyone involved. 

Driving Efficiency – Redefining the Credentialing Process 

Through working with RLDatix, Bozeman Health was able to drive significant change across the system and align with industry best practices. The resulting system now serves as a comprehensive, electronic database of provider files, built to serve the right people the right information at the right time. 

Today, providers and staff can upload information from anywhere. And with dedicated queues and hardcoded timestamps for assigned work, credentialing teams can monitor progress and maintain tight quality controls for patient safety and overall experience. Additionally, committee members now have early access to detailed provider files, enabling comprehensive review and exception handling. 

“Now we come to work paperless... It is clean, it is seamless, it is at our fingertips, and it is easily accessible for all those going through the [credentialing] process or those needing to verify credentialing and privileges.”

— Heather Holmquist, System Manager of Medical Staff Services at Bozeman Health 

Creating a Safer Future Through Accountability & Efficiency 

Together, Bozeman Health and RLDatix transformed the way the system conducts business. The new infrastructure has provided:

• Greater efficiency for managing provider classifications and large-scale initiatives (for example, the rapid collection of provider COVID-19 vaccination records) 
• Greater flexibility after-hours and during emergency situations
• More proactive and productive credentialing meetings
• Improved patient and provider experience 

By working with RLDatix, Bozeman Health has taken critical steps toward building a culture driven by ownership and accountability. Initiatives like this allow organizations to adopt a more comprehensive strategy and integrate data for managing patient care, provider performance, and peer review. 

This ultimately serves everyone involved in the patient journey—creating a better and safer experience, helping systems more effectively support their workforce, and establishing the foundation for a more sustainable future. 

Tune into this webinar to hear more about how Bozeman Health modernized their credentialing process.

If you’d like to learn more about how we can support your team, our solution experts would be happy to chat with you. Request a demo now.