Applying for Hospital Privileges

Tips for the practice group:

• Contact the head midwife to inform them of your intention to apply for privileges for a midwife joining your practice, confirm hospital policies and protocols, discuss whether any difficulties in securing privileges are possible because of quotas/caps or other reasons, and to explore potential strategies and their role in assisting you to secure privileges.
• Engage your Transfer Payment Agency (TPA) in discussions around integrating a new midwife into the local hospital. Ask the TPA where appropriate to write a letter of introduction supporting the growth of midwifery in your community.

Tips for the midwife applying for privileges:

• Check with the head midwife about the pros and cons of applying for privileges even if you don’t think they’ll be successful, so that problems securing privileges are fully documented. Discuss the implications with the midwife joining the practice.
• Keep the AOM and CMO informed in writing should you run into difficulties in the application process.
• Begin as soon as possible to obtain needed letters of reference.
• If available, include letters of support from the practice partners, your TPA, the head midwife, midwifery stakeholders, other community based health care organizations, and consumers.
• Include an application form and any other documents requested by the hospital in your initial application package. Make sure your resume is up to date.
• Have a practice partner and the head midwife review your application package for completeness and typos.
• Submit your application as early as possible.
• Check with your head midwife about whether it may be beneficial to hand-deliver the application package to the hospital. Take a practice partner with you to introduce you to administrative staff.

Next steps:

• Ask your head midwife for templates from previous successful applications for privileges so you can build on past efforts and reduce the work that you have to do to develop your impact analysis.
• Request that your head midwife inform the hospital chief of staff and/or chair of the Medical Advisory Committee that you will be seeking privileges for a new registrant, and if difficulties are probable, to discuss possible strategies to address barriers.
• Request an application form and a copy of the hospital’s policy on granting privileges.
• Find out who is on the credentialing committee at the hospital. It may be beneficial to build a relationship with these people, particularly if they can influence decisions around quotas.
• Find out when the credentialing committee meets to consider requests for privileges.
• Inform the AOM early on if you are expecting difficulties in obtaining privileges, particularly if the problem is because of quotas.
• Find out from the head midwife and other practices as much information as possible about why there may be problems in securing privileges. Document this.

The strategies proposed here are best practices but may need to be modified to ensure that they do not conflict with the protocols and process at your local hospital. The head midwife can advise on how to adapt these tips to your hospital.