Related Experiment Videos
Rural hospitals' experience with the National Practitioner Data Bank
W E Neighbor1, L M Baldwin, P A West
1Department of Family Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle 98195, USA.
Objectives:
This study examined hospital administrators' experiences with the National Practitioner Data Bank.
Methods:
One hundred forty-nine rural hospital administrators completed questionnaires assessing their perceptions of the data bank.
Results:
Nearly 90% of respondents rated the data bank as an important source of information for credentialing. Three percent indicated it had directly affected privileging decisions; 43% and 34%, respectively, believed the costs exceeded or equaled the benefits. Twenty percent reported changes that could decrease disciplinary action reports to the data bank.
Conclusions:
While the National Practitioner Data Bank is an important source of information to rural hospitals, it may, affect few credentialing decisions and motivate behavioral changes that could have a paradoxical effect on quality assurance.