NBPAS pushes for hospitals to accept its certification

The recently-formed National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (NBPAS) is calling on its members to encourage the hospitals where they practice to accept NBPAS as an alternative pathway to recertification.

“At this phase of the project it is essential for hospitals to start accepting NBPAS certification as a valid alternative to ABMS [American Board of Medical Specialties] certification,” Paul Teirstein, MD, wrote in a May 21 e-mail to NBPAS members. “We need your help. Please contact your Chief of Staff and request your hospital’s bylaws be changed to accept NBPAS.”

The e-mail includes a sample letter that NBPAS members can send to the chiefs of staff at hospitals where they are employed or have admitting privileges, and suggests trying to persuade colleagues to sign the letter.

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“Overall I feel it’s going very well,” Teirstein said in a telephone interview with Medical Economics. “I expected this process to take many months.” Even in my own hospital (Scripps Medical Center) we’re not close to being through with it.“

Teirstein said four hospitals to-date have agreed to recognize NBPAS certification. Thus far Medical Economics has been able to independently verify that two have done so: Capital Region Medical Center in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Shawnee Mission Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

Teirstein founded NBPAS at the start of 2015 to provide physicians with an alternative route for maintaining certification in their specialty, largely out of dissatisfaction with changes to the maintenance of certification process instituted by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the ABMS, its parent organization. In his e-mail, Teirstein says NBPAS has close to 2,000 applicants for membership from physicians.