Credentialing

From Thousand Smiles Wiki

PRELIMINARY PROCEDURES

1. The Board shall appoint a Credentialing Committee. This committee will begin the process of screening potential applicants for the Medical Staff. The first step will be to have the applicant fill out an application for Medical Staff (Exhibit A)[1]. The committee will investigate the applicant’s employment history, affiliations, education and professional liability insurance. In addition, the committee should query the Medical Board of California [2] , The Dental Board of California [3] , and the National Practitioner Data Bank [4].

2. A team coordinator should be selected from the San Diego group. This person should be fluently bilingual as well as very knowledgeable about the Mexican culture and political system. It will be very important for this person to be knowledgeable enough to sense when anyone from his team is acting or expressing himself in such a manner as to hurt the feelings of any Mexican functionaries or hosts with whom they might be working with or soliciting cooperation from.

3. The host Rotary Club in Mexico should also select a coordinator. This person should also be bilingual and understanding of the direct and to the point manner that many Americans have of expressing themselves. He should always be alert and ready to defuse any possible situation that might arise as a result of this.

4. All medical volunteer service providers will be given an English translation of the Definition of Standards for Foreign Doctors Temporarily Performing professionally in Mexico, published by the General Office for Standards, Supervision and Development of Health Services. (Exhibit B). Each person will be expected to read this document, make himself familiar with it and to conform to each and every item mentioned therein.

LICENSING PROCEDURES

1. All professional service providers should submit their professional volunteer application form, a scanned full size copy of their passport or proof of citizenship and picture ID to Mina Olimon at mina@rlcequip.com. The pictures must be recognizable and all the printed information must be legible. Alternately copies can be faxed to 619.267.4553 if unable to e-mail the documents. Faxing is generally not recommended as pictures are usually not acceptable if faxed unless your fax has a Photo option.

2. Mina will (a) verify the license via the internet or (b) obtain a verification by mail.

3. A member of the Credentialing Comittee will take a list of the professional volunteers along with the above documents to the Tijuana Immigration office for approval.

4. All professional volunteers who comply with the above requirements will be pre-registered with Mexican Immigration and will not need to obtain a visa when crossing the border.

DIF AND HEALTH DEPARTMENT MEETINGS

1. It will be advisable for the host Rotary Club to set up a meeting with The Local President of the DIF (normally the Mayor’s wife) in order to obtain their blessing for the project and possibly to request their collaboration in importing supplies and equipment for the project. The team coordinator from San Diego should prepare information describing the project and take the same to this meeting.

2. A meeting should be held with the Director of the General Hospital in Ensenada the day before surgeries are to be performed. A list of professional volunteers participating at the hospital should be given to him at that time along with the supporting documents.