Raise Awareness on the Power of the Medical Services Profession
Be a champion of the medical services profession and your valuable role as the gatekeeper of patient safety. The medical services profession is continuously evolving and expanding and this toolkit will help translate the findings outlined in the report into tangible actions that can change perceptions, increase funding, and open doors to new opportunities.
Share The Report
The Defining Tomorrow’s MSP®: The Future of the Medical Services Profession Report is a vital tool to demonstrate the important role MSPs play today, and tomorrow, in the delivery of quality healthcare.
Talking Points
Use these talking points to effectively communicate the importance of your role in the healthcare industry to your peers, department management, and facility leadership.
- Medical Services Professionals are the gatekeepers of patient safety – we are the first point in healthcare delivery, connecting providers and healthcare practitioners with patients. My job is to ensure that we are employing and onboarding the best practitioners.
- The field of Medical Staff Services has developed from one that encompassed primarily clerical positions to one that spans employment settings and requires specific knowledge and professional competencies. The term Medical Services Profession was established to reflect this shift in settings, responsibilities and qualifications.
- With the development of new technology, the healthcare industry has been increasingly focused on standardization, centralization, and consolidation, as well as value-based over volume-based medicine in order to increase patient/member satisfaction.
- Credentialing and privileging practitioners is not easy – I often do background checks on practitioners with very little resources and incomplete databases. I work to ensure that credentials and previous experience are verified, and that practitioners have no history of malpractice.
- The medical services profession has grown into a significant role within any healthcare setting and continues to evolve as patient safety remains a core value of the healthcare industry.
- The healthcare industry is constantly changing and I am essential to ensuring patient safety through my expertise in credentialing and awareness of new guidelines.
- While skills like professional ethics and communication are important at all levels, specialized skills like clinical competence and political savvy become crucial as MSPs advance in their career and roles evolve.
- As healthcare organizations continue to shift, MSPs are adapting to the changing landscape, and doing more than ever before. With the trend toward centralization, automation and digitization, MSPs will need to remain vigilant, familiarizing themselves with new technologies, and understanding new ideologies in order to advance the profession and remain key leaders within the organization. To become the MSPs of tomorrow, today’s MSPs must acknowledge these drivers of change and embrace the evolution of the profession in order to survive, succeed, and grow.
- As the healthcare field becomes more and more focused on standardization and consolidation, my role is changing tremendously. I now need to have a multidisciplinary approach and become well-versed in topics like risk management, project management, economics, legal and malpractice issues, leadership, and more. My goal is to grow my transformational skills to be ready to adapt to new challenges as they arise and to prepare myself and my facility for the future of the industry.
Tomorrow’s MSP Downloads
Sample Communications
To organization decision makers and stakeholders:
Customize and send a message like this to start a conversation about your department’s role with key decision-makers at your facility.
Hi NAME,
I just saw this new study from the National Association Medical Staff Services (NAMSS) that defines the importance of our department and areas of growth for the future. I thought you might like to share it with your team. This graphic of the core functional areas MSPs need to excel nicely sums up the important role our department plays in patient safety and within our facility.
In addition to what's outlined above, we are also responsible for [LIST ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES].
Feel free to share this graphic and report with colleagues. If you want to learn more, visit namss.org/Tomorrows-MSP to view and download the Defining Tomorrow's MSP®: The Future of the Medical Services Profession Report.
I would love to discuss with you the key role our department plays in ensuring quality healthcare delivery – let me know when you would like to chat.
Sincerely,
YOUR EMAIL SIGNATURE
To peers, colleagues, and employees you supervise:
You don't need to do this alone – empower your colleagues and fellow MSPs to join you. Customize the message below to encourage others to advocate for the role of the Medical Services Profession.
Hi NAME,
As you know, the National Association Medical Staff Services (NAMSS) offers resources designed to help us stay educated and relevant in our field. If you have not already read the Defining Tomorrow’s MSP®: The Future of the Medical Services Profession Report, I encourage you to review it and visit NAMSS.org/Tomorrows-MSP to learn more. The report examines our role as gatekeepers of patient safety, and summarizes the current landscape of our profession as well as opportunities for the future.
Last year, NAMSS completed a nationwide study in order to get a detailed look at the core responsibilities, skill sets, and knowledge essential to Medical Services Professionals (MSPs) and how our role has expanded over the last two years.
The report identifies emerging trends in our field that can help us stay ahead of the curve and illustrates the continuously evolving and growing role that MSPs raising awareness for our profession. Together we can help spread the word about how important our role is to patient safety and help establish our department, and departments like ours across the country, as an imperative step on the path to delivering quality patient care. Will you pledge to advocate alongside me?
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
To your facility’s educational grant approver:
Use this letter to request funding to participate in an educational program that will help you reach the next level of your career.
Dear NAME,
In order to further my professional development and better serve YOUR ORGANIZATION/FACILITY I am requesting $AMOUNT to participate in the National Association Medical Staff Services (NAMSS) PROGRAM.
PROGRAM offers the opportunity to [LIST BENEFITS, e.g. enhance skills, gain a better understanding of a certain topic, etc.]. As outlined in the Defining Tomorrow's MSP®: The Future of the Medical Services Profession Report released in October 2020 by NAMSS, the essential skillsets required to effectively execute my job are shifting and growing as the healthcare landscape evolves. I feel confident in my STRONG SKILLS skills but feel that PROGRAM will improve my WEAK SKILLS skills. Specifically, [GIVE 3-5 SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF HOW THE PROGRAM WILL HELP, e.g. the program includes a course on people management, a new responsibility I've taken on in the past few months].
As you can see, the knowledge and resources that I will obtain from PROGRAM will help me deliver a higher level of support to ORGANIZATION as we pursue the highest quality of patient care. Thank you in advance for contributing to my professional development.
Sincerely,
YOUR SIGNATURE
Tomorrow's MSP® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a service mark of National Association Medical Staff Services.