Dentist Hospital Privilege

NyCzPeter said:

I always heard of only physicians and nurses getting hospital privileges, but I just came upon an article that said under New York state law, optometrists, podiatrists, psychologists, and dentists also have hospital privileges as well.

I've only shadowed physicians and dentists in their own offices and know nothing about this matter. So first question is, what exactly are these "hospital privileges." Second is, to what extent of them do Dentists get?

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"Hospital privileges" simply means that the hospital formally recognizes the individual as someone who can do something at the facility. Different providers will have different privileges depending on what they do in the course of their work at the hospital. A dentist's hospital privileges would likely include the ability to treat patients in the OR, ordering diagnostic labs, and such. It's unlikely the dentist would be granted admitting privileges, for example, since they'd have to demonstrate that they were competent to manage any patients who required hospital admission. Any patient in that situation would need to be seen by the medicine service, via consult, and if necessary they would admit the patient to their service and manage their hospital care.

Basically, hospital privileges are what allows you to do what you do when you're working there.

In order for a dentist to get hospital privileges at most institutions, he must complete a hospital based residency. Usually this applies to GPR trained general dentists, pedodontists, and OMFS. Perio, pros, and ortho, can get privileges, but they are generally more restricted. Both general dentists and OMFS can get admitting privileges, however because of the fact that general dentistry is a more specialized service, it is usually the consult service and not the admitting one. OR privileges are granted to both. OMFS are usually credentialed to do the complete history and physical exam upon admission, while general dentists only complete the head and neck portion and leave the rest to the PCP. This is not an absolute rule as the hospital decides who can complete the history and physical. Joint Commission rules state that it is up to the credentialing institution to decide who can complete the H&P.