The GHX 5 Part Framework: Access & Badging Level Vendor Credentialing Compliance

• Jennifer Barber, Vendormate Compliance Associate

Badging is an important safety component for vendor representatives. All vendor representatives should obtain a badge to enter a facility; those who do not meet your organization’s credentialing requirements should be denied a badge.

Vendor credentialing helps to ensure that representatives are being checked against policy requirements your facility has stipulated for safe access. It also confirms any required documents are on file at the time of entry.

A best practice for facility access management is for health systems to require representatives to check in at a badging station upon entering a facility and wear visible badges at all locations within the health system. Badges show hospital staff that the representatives who wear them have met organizational credentialing requirements and provided the required documents. 

This can be facilitated by automating check-ins, including wellness checks and temperature scans. Self-serve kiosks for checking in require less staff to handle the badging process and are most effective when located in highly visible areas with the greatest expected foot traffic.

The Facility Access & Badging Level best practices checklist includes:

• Train all departments and locations to require representatives to sign in and print a badge each visit.
• Make sure your badging stations are functioning properly and that your vendor credentialing organization has the most updated list of locations for your stations.
• Consider automating the badging process by upgrading your badging stations to self-serve kiosks.
• Place your badging stations in a highly visible area where you have the greatest amount of foot traffic.

A systemwide culture of compliance is incredibly important for this to work. It’s vital to invest in staff training when it comes to access and badging vendor compliance. Organizations should empower staff to identify areas of non-compliance (such as individuals in a facility without proper badging) and bring issues to the attention of management. All vendor representatives should be “fully badge compliant” to enter a facility—and any representatives who do not meet qualifications should be denied an entry badge.

Want to see how our team can assist you in optimizing vendor credentialing compliance? Schedule a review with one of our experts today.

Jennifer Barber

Vendormate Compliance Associate