Let me be clear:
ABPM believes hospitals and institutions should follow the many laws, regulations, and standards that govern the privileging of providers.
Accordingly, privileges should be based on a providers
education, training, and current experience.
Board certification is
not required at all for surgical privileges and hospitals are
prohibited from using it as the sole criterion in privileging decisions. However, if board certification is an element of privileging, it must be certification in one's primary specialty. A CAQ should never be required to perform any privilege. But a hospital may look upon that favorably in determining a provider's delineation of privileges.
The privileging process is convoluted and not uniform from state-to-state and hospital-to-hospital. Localities are empowered (and required) to enact policies that protect their patients, as long as they don't violate the law.
Protecting the Public:
Board certification isn't the only mechanism to protect the public. In fact, there are probably more than a dozen entities and processes that are charged with protecting the public, including:
Licensing Board Exams
State Licensure
State Laws
Federal Laws
CMS Conditions of Participation
Accrediting Bodies
Certifying Boards
Medical-Legal System (via malpractice suits)
Peer Review
Hospitals
The ABPM Certification Exam is a psychometrically-validated process that is a trusted element in this public protection mechanism.
The CAQ in Podiatric Surgery is utilizing the same processes. It follows the CAQ in Amputation Prevention and Wound Care which started in 2017 and the CAQ in Podiatric Sports Medicine which started in 2022.
We currently have more podiatrists signed up to take the
CAQ in Podiatric Surgery than we do the other CAQs and our Board Certification. And the deadline isn't until January 15, 2023.
This is not backdoor and your demeaning of the validated process by which CAQs are developed shows your lack of knowledge.
Any ABPM-certified DPM
can submit for privileging assistance and we've fought every hospital that has discriminated against a diplomate and we have an entire list of victories. In most cases, requiring ABFAS certification only for podiatric surgery privileges is violating the law. We don't lose those cases. But recognize that we can't fight every case at the same time and it takes a diplomate to be a damaged party and complain about it for us to act. In spite of all this, in our surveys, a vast majority of hospitals recognized ABPM certification for the full scope of podiatric privileges.
And I'll close by asking you some questions: Who is sticking up for you? Is it ABFAS and their <36% pass rate? Does the President of ABFAS participate in this forum and take questions from students, residents, and practicing DPMs? Or is it ABPM who says we're not going to let the profession be strangled by a self-serving organization that is testing at a level beyond the standardized 3-year residency program?
If the standard tested is beyond your training, it conversely harms the public by limiting access to competent surgeons.
We will continue to do the right thing and move Podiatry Forward!
Thank you.