The APA Committee on Professional Practice and Standards (COPPS), a continuing committee of the Board of Professional Affairs, is reviewing the “Guidelines for Hospital Privileges: Credentialing & Bylaws” adopted as APA policy in 1991.The purpose of the COPPS review is to determine whether these guidelines need revision or whether development of alternative guidelines or another document might best address the current concerns of those in hospital practice. COPPS requests input from the APA membership regarding this revision, and has made the “Guidelines for Hospital Privileges: Credentialing & Bylaws” available for public comment online at http://forms.apa.org/practice/hospitalprivileges.

The guidelines establish uniform guidelines for the credentialing of psychologists who work with hospitals and offer language that can be used in hospital medical staff bylaws to ensure that psychologists play an appropriate role in the hospital setting. Regarding credentials, the guidelines provide an objective frame of reference for psychologists to use in reviewing other psychologists for training and credentialing purposes. Regarding hospital bylaws, the guidelines identify key provisions that should be included in hospital bylaws so that psychologists become members of the medical staff and have appropriate and effective privileges. The guidelines also provide guidance on the appropriate scope of practice of psychology in a hospital-based setting. Such guidance can be used by psychologists developing a hospital practice and by hospital administrators and physicians who are developing roles for psychologists in hospitals.

COPPS seeks the following comments from APA members:

• Evaluation of the importance, relevance and adequacy of the existing guidelines and the specific aspects of the document that are helpful and not helpful.

• Recommendations for specific changes to the existing guidelines or language, including descriptions of situations where you directly experienced difficulty or uncertainty in attaining hospital credentials or privileges.

• Specific questions about hospital privileges about which you, or constituencies you represent, would like more information.

• Additional questions about the application and implementation of the current set of guidelines.

• Recommendations for additional guidelines or language to address any areas not covered in the current guidelines. COPPS is particularly interested in gaining member perspectives on the application of these guidelines in an evolving health-care setting.

The deadline for providing comments at http://forms.apa.org/practice/hospitalprivileges is June 8.