American society for apheresis white paper: Considerations for medical staff apheresis medicine physician credentialing and privileging

Abstract

Patient safety during therapeutic apheresis involves both practitioners' and institutional provision of care aspects. Physician training experiences, medical licensing, and board certification status, along with continuing medical education and participation in risk management/patient safety projects are characteristic facets of physician competency in the provision of quality apheresis medicine interventions. Documentation of such indicators may help in medical staff deliberations regarding physician privileging in the oversight and management of apheresis medicine activities in hospitals.

Apheresis medicine in the era of advanced telehealth technologies: An American Society for Apheresis position paper Part I: Understanding the basic technologies and apheresis medicine practice models

“…Apheresis medicine (AM) is "a medical and scientific discipline concerned with the use of extracorporal blood separation and processing for the treatment of disease in patients or the collection of blood components from donors." 1 As a medical sub-specialty, AM practitioners focus on the pertinent and appropriate clinical application, care and management of patients and donors that receive extracorporeal procedures using various medical devices. Using such devices, a trained operator performs extracorporeal separation of whole blood into its constituent parts selectively removing a blood element of interest, such as plasma, and depending on the amount of volume removed, replacing that component with medically appropriate replacement fluids.…”

“…2 Given the spectrum and complexity of diseases and medical conditions treated by apheresis techniques, the AM discipline has generally been practiced in large medical centers under the direct oversight of properly educated and trained physicians, henceforth here referred to as the AM Expert Consultant (AME). 1 With the recognition that the AME cannot always be available on-site for all episodes of apheresis care rendered, a second pertinently educated and trained, but typically less AM experienced physician (ie, the Educated Colleague [EdC]) often participates in an apheresis intervention at the same or associated institution. 1 This arrangement is considered to render high-quality AM clinical care but does not entirely resolve limitations to patients' geographical access to apheresis procedures.…”

“…1 With the recognition that the AME cannot always be available on-site for all episodes of apheresis care rendered, a second pertinently educated and trained, but typically less AM experienced physician (ie, the Educated Colleague [EdC]) often participates in an apheresis intervention at the same or associated institution. 1 This arrangement is considered to render high-quality AM clinical care but does not entirely resolve limitations to patients' geographical access to apheresis procedures.…”

A proposal for sectorial organizing and quality standards in therapeutic apheresis: The therapeutic apheresis unit (TAU) standards

“…The American Society for Apheresis (ASFA) regularly publishes and updates clinical guidelines to properly perform TA in a wide series of human diseases . Some recently published papers highlighted the importance of quality and educational issues in TA . Here, we describe the more relevant characteristics of a model of TA standards, named TA unit (TAU) standards, that may help to establish a quality program in units working in the field of TA (shown as supplementary material and available at http://www.ifeit.org/pdf/TAU_Standards_3.0.pdf).…”

“…3 Some recently published papers highlighted the importance of quality and educational issues in TA. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Here, we describe the more relevant characteristics of a model of TA standards, named TA unit (TAU) standards, that may help to establish a quality program in units working in the field of TA (shown as supplementary material and available at http://www.ifeit.org/pdf/TAU_Standards_ 3.0.pdf). This expert group had four residential meetings that were coordinated by an expert in quality assurance (Selena Palma, Exem Consulting sa, Melide, Switzerland) and several meetings that were remote web-based conferences.…”