All initial appointments, grants of clinical privileges, and any new clinical privileges granted to an existing medical staff appointee are provisional for a period of six months. At the beginning of the provisional period, the appointee must choose a proctor to observe and comment on his or her performance during the provisional period. The proctor is responsible for submitting a report on the physician's performance during the provisional period. Sixty days prior to the end of a provisional period, the CEO will send written notice to the practitioner, indicating the date the provisional period may end.
Final processing follows the procedures set forth in the appointment process.
In some cases, an appointee is unable to obtain required statements with respect to a particular clinical privilege because his or her case load at the hospital was inadequate to demonstrate ability to exercise that privilege. In such a case, the appointee may submit a statement to the credentials committee that describes the situation, signed by the applicable department chair. Under these conditions, the provisional period may be extended for an additional six-month period. Only one such extension is permissible. If a practitioner wishes to decrease his or her provisional period to less than six months, he or she may do so by submitting the required documentation to the credentials committee.