Question: We have a new maternal-fetal medicine specialist on our staff at our hospital. We have never had this type of specialist before on staff. How do we go about privileging?

Answer: When hospitals receive applications from sub-specialists, such as a maternal-fetal medicine specialist or any number of other specialized providers, issues arise because the hospital has never had that type of specialist on its medical staff.  For example, the specialist may request clinical privileges for some procedures that have never been performed at the hospital.  The specialist should be told that those procedures are not currently performed at the hospital, but that within a reasonable amount of time, the request will be considered and the specialist will be informed of whether the hospital intends to allow the procedures to be performed.  Information should be sought from a number of sources, including training programs and other hospitals. If the Board decides to allow the procedures to be performed, criteria for clinical privileges should be developed.  Also, the hospital may wish to consider bringing in an outside specialist to observe and evaluate the new specialist for the first few cases.  The outside specialist should be granted temporary privileges for this purpose.